


What Could Have Been

by Jorun



Series: Have Been [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2017-11-22 23:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 38,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/615535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jorun/pseuds/Jorun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drusilla never finds out that Jenny is planning on translating the curse, causing Angel to wreak havoc elsewhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Passion Revisited

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters, if I did Jenny never would have been killed. They are owned by Joss Whedon, etc. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is made, this is just a hobby. 
> 
> This is my first attempt at fanfiction or at least the first i’ve let anyone else read. English is not my first language so please excuse any spelling mistakes.
> 
> This story begins at the episode Passion from season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it starts after the scene where Giles invites Jenny to come to his house and is AU after that. Some of the dialogue and scenes in the first chapter are from the actual episode.

"Thanks for helping out with this Oz," Willow said with a grateful smile.

"No problem Willow, I'm just glad to have a reason to spend more time with you," he replied with a big smile, that grew even bigger when Willow blushed in response.

"Hmm... sorry to interrupt you guys, but we need to hurry up. We have to perform the spell at my house before my mom comes home," Buffy intervened. Sure, it was great that everything was going so well between them, but she was anxious to get this spell done tonight.

"Oh... of course, sorry Buffy," Willow said quickly, sounding genuinely upset.

While Oz's, "Yeah, sorry," was completely ruined by the fact that he couldn't stop smiling.

"That's okay," said Buffy gently, realizing that her earlier rebuke had come out harsher than she had meant it to. "Let’s just get this over with. Oz you nail the crucifix to the wall, I'll burn the moss and the herbs. Willow can you read the spell?"

"Sure," she replied absently, watching Oz has he hanged up the cross. "I'm going to have a hard time explaining this to my dad."

"You really think it'll bother him?" Buffy asked.

"Ira Rosenberg's only daughter nailing crucifixes to her bedroom wall? I have to go over to Xander's house just to watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' every year."

"I see your point."

"All done," Oz announced.

"All right, let's do this," said Buffy determinedly.

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He stood waiting patiently outside her house and it wasn't long before he saw the car coming down the street and finally pulling up in the driveway. He stepped out of the shadows and stood in front of the car, he slowly approached the open car window and said in a slow voice, "Mrs. Summers, I need to talk to you."

Joyce stepped out of the car holding a bag of groceries and was obviously struggling to keep her calm, "You're Angel."

"Did Buffy tell you about us?"

"She told me she wants you to leave her alone," she answered, managing to keep her voice firm.

"I-I can't. I can't do that."

"You're scaring her."

Angelus couldn't help but ponder over her stupidity as she began walking towards the house. As if she could get away, he calmly followed her. "You have to help me. I need, I need to be with her. Y-you can convince her. You have to convince her."

"Look," she was trying to appear to be in control but he could already see the fear in her eyes has he moved to stand in front of her. "I'm telling you to leave her alone.

"You have to talk to her for me, Joyce. Tell her I need her."

She quickly moved around him her voice stammering as she answered, "Please, look, I-I just want to get inside, okay?" He couldn't help but smile as she's desperately looked for her car keys, dropping her bag in the process.

"You don't understand, Joyce. I'll die without Buffy. She'll die without me."

"Are you threatening her?" she exclaimed her voice suddenly taking on an angry tone.

"Please... Why is she doing this to me?"

"I'm calling the police now."

As she fumbled trying to find the right key he moved up to stand next to her. And just as she found the right key he went in for the big finally, "I haven't been able to sleep since the night we made love." He felt a huge triumph at the shocked look on her face, "I need her. I know you understand."

"Just leave us alone," she said, clearly upset, before she rushed into the house.

Angelus smiled as he went to follow her inside but he was suddenly thrown back by an invisible barrier. That's when he saw Buffy, Willow and Oz coming down the stairs and he heard Willow saying the words, "Hicce verbis consensus rescissus est."

He was so taken of guard that he didn't even react when Buffy stepped up to the door and coldly said, "Sorry, Angel. Changed the locks," before she slammed the door in his face.

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Jenny was sitting in her classroom in front of the computer working on the translation program, impatiently waiting to see if the translation has worked. She desperately wanted this to work. No, she needed this to work. Even if Rupert seemed willing to forgive her for not telling him the truth she needed to make things right. And she was not going to let this come between them. She just wasn't.

"Come on, come on..." All of a sudden she saw a translation scroll up next to the original text.

"That's it!" she exclaimed, not able to contain her excitement. "It's going to work! This... will work."

She quickly saved the translation on a yellow disk and printed out a copy. After erasing the translation from the hard drive she hurried out to her car. She had to show this to Rupert as soon as possible.

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Angelus was furious. That little bitch, did she really think that just performing a ritual to keep him out of her house was going to stop him. Well she would find out different soon enough. He had planned on taunting her for a bit longer before the real torture started, but clearly it was time to take action. The Slayer and her little friends were about to find out exactly what he was cable of.

Another car pulling to a stop outside the house interrupted his thoughts. He instantly recognized the Watcher as he stepped out of the car and went up to the front door. He watched from afar trying to no avail to hear what they are talking about. After only a few minutes the Watcher came back out and got back in his car. He debated with himself whatever he should follow him or not. He had planned to wait a while before killing him, it was better if he started out with someone less obvious and the Watcher knew how to defend himself. He was no match for him of course but... all of a sudden the door opening again caught his attention. He watched in fascination as Willow and Oz exited. They walked over to a van parked in the street. Oz opened the passenger door for Willow before getting in the driver seat and driving off. Suddenly feeling inspired he followed them, this was going to be fun.

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Oz pulled to a stop outside Willows house. After a long uncomfortable silence Willow finally said, "Well... good night then."

"I'll walk you to the door," Oz exclaimed a little too loudly as he hurried out of the van to open the door for her.

"Oh... no you don't have to that."

"But I want to."

"Okay," she replied shyly and they started walking up to the door. Neither of them noticed the tall figure watching from afar.

They stood awkwardly by the door for a minute looking at each other in silence. "So... good night," Willow said again.

"Good night," Oz answered but neither of them moved. After another minute of silence Willow turned to go inside when Oz suddenly blurted out, "Iwanttogooutwithyouagain" Willow quickly turned to look at him with wide Eyes.

"How about tomorrow?" he quickly added.

"Sure!" she answered a little too enthusiastic. "I mean ah... sure," she repeated, trying to appear nonchalant and falling miserably.

"Great," he didn’t even bother to try and hide the huge grin starting to spread over is face knowing it would be useless. "Good night then." He started to back away, then changed his mind and walked towards her. He slowly leaned in and softly kissed her.

Willow could only stare after him with wide eyes as he started making his way back to his van, a feeling of complete happiness washing over her. A feeling that quickly disappear when she saw Angelus stepping out of the shadows.

"Oz!" she shouted after him, but before Oz had any time to react Angel strode forward and grabbed him from behind. And in one swift movement he twisted his head and snapped his neck. Willow could only stare in horror as Angelus turned towards her with an evil grin on his face, gloating before he turned and disappeared back into the shadows. For a moment it seemed as if time is standing still. Then she felt herself begin to shake, in a second she was crying uncontrollably, "Nooooo!"


	2. Aftermath

Jenny was sitting in her car parked outside Giles’s apartment, waiting for him to come home. Where the hell was he anyway, she had already been waiting for 10 minutes and it felt like she was about to burst with excitement. Just then she spotted his old 'should be in the dump' car. She hurried out and was already by his car when he opened the door, "Where have you been?"

"I stopped by at Buffy’s. To get the book you lent me, she’d used it to perform the ritual to keep Angel out."

"Oh," She was taken aback and for a moment she forgot what she had to tell him, "How did it go?"

"The spell worked just in time. Angel showed up and he... well, he couldn't enter."

She felt like she was missing an entire level to the conversation but she forgot all about it as she remembered what she wanted to talk to him about, "Well I have some more good news for you."

"Great," Rupert said, smiling sweetly at her. "Why don't we go inside and you can tell me all about it."

"Yeah, sure."

She couldn’t help but smile a little when she entered his apartment and she felt a peaceful calm wash over her. For the last few weeks she'd thought she never would be welcome here again. She knew it was foolish of her but being there now she just couldn't help but feel like everything was going to be okay.

"Are you alright?" Giles gentle and slightly worried voice interrupted her musings and she realized that she had been standing in the middle of the room staring in to space and she can feel a slight blush rising to her cheeks.

"I'm fine."

He looked at her intently for a while and she could see that he was not entirely convinced, but then he shrugged and sat down on the couch motioning for her to join him. "So... You said you had some good news?"

"Oh right, the curse... to restore Angel's soul. I think I have it. I mean..." she stopped and cringed at her sudden inability to explain herself.

Giles looked at her with a completely awed expression, "What do you mean you have it?"

Jenny took a couple of deep breaths, trying to get herself under control. "Before at school, when I told you I was working on a special project. I was working on a program to translate the Romanian liturgy to English based on a random sampling of the text."

Seeing his confused look, she quickly continued, "Never mind, the how doesn't really matter. Here," she handed him the printout of the ritual.

At first he couldn’t seem to do anything but stare at the piece of paper, "Good Lord. I thought you said it couldn't be done."

"Well I can't guarantee it will work, but I think it might. I could perform the ritual tonight... if you want me to," she added, suddenly feeling unsure.

"Well, yes... yes of course. But... I-I should probably call Buffy first and tell her." He got up and grabbed the phone, but before he could dial he put it back down and went back to sit next to her on the couch, "Thank you for this Jenny. I..." He stopped, unable to put into words what he was feeling.

She reached out and took a hold of his hand, "You don't have to thank me Rupert. It was the least I could do."

He looked at her for a long moment before saying, "Yesterday at school when you told me that... how you. What I-I should have said... I want you to know..." Jenny held her breath hoping that he was going to say what she wanted him to say, "Jenny I..." However, he didn’t have time to finish before the phone ringing interrupted him.

"Damn," he muttered under his breath.

"What do you expect? We were in the middle of a conversation," Jenny said, her words sarcastic but the smile on her face showed that she wasn't really offended. She really wanted to hear what he had to say but knowing it could be important she reluctantly said, "You should probably get that."

"Yes," He looked at her for another second, his expression soft before he stood up again to answer the phone, "Hello?" he answered, not able to hide his irritation and Jenny couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

But his mood quickly picked up when he heard who was calling, "Buffy, funny you would call, I was just about to call you myself. I, have some good news. What?" As he listened to what Buffy I was saying his face changed to one of shock, and Jenny knew right then and there that something awful had happened.

"Oh Good Lord. How? What happened?" She watched intently as his face went pale and her mind started coming up with all kind of horrible scenarios of what could have happened.

"What about Willow? Where is she?" he paused for a second to listen. "Yes of course, yes, I'll be right there." He hung up the phone and looked at her. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.

After a few agonizing minutes she finally summoned up the courage to ask, "What's wrong? Are the kids okay?"

"Oz is dead," he paused for a second. "Angelus killed him, and Willow saw the whole thing." His voice was calm and methodical, not reflecting any of the shock that was so clear on his face.

"Oh my god," Jenny felt like she has just been hit in the stomach, all the air leaving her lungs. She shook her head trying to get herself under Control.

"I have to leave, I promised Buffy I would meet with her at Willow's house." He hesitated for a second before going on, "Um, it's probably better if you... I, should probably go alone."

"Right, of course," She slowly stood up and was relieved to find out that her legs could still carry her. "What about the curse, do you still want me to do it?" she asked, vaguely gesturing towards the printout he was still holding in his hand.

"Oh. I guess I will have to talk to Buffy. To see if she... What she thinks." He stopped his rambling, his expression changing to one of concern. "Jenny have you told anyone else about this?"

"No, just you. And, the guy at the store."

"What store?" he asked, suddenly sounding very anxious.

"The store where I bought the Orb of Thesulah, for the curse."

"What exactly did you tell him?"

"That I was trying to translate the Romanian liturgy to English, and that I was going to capture a soul for a-"

Before she could finish the sentence Giles interrupted her by grabbing her arm and practically dragging her out of the apartment, "We have to get out of here."

"Why?"

Shaking his head at her unawareness of the danger she could be in he replied, "If Angelus finds out that you have the spell-" He broke of, not wanting to finish the thought. "He's never been in your apartment has he?"

She can't do anything but shake her head 'No'.

"Good. I'll drive you home"

"I have my car," she reminded him when she regained the ability to speak.

"Right. Well why don't you drive ahead and I'll follow you, make sure you get home safe."

"Okay."

She made her way over to her car and got in the driver seat. It took her about half a minute before she remembered to take out her keys and start the car.

She is not entirely sure how, but she manages to drive to her apartment. Giles is out of his car and opening the door for her before she had enough time to turn the engine of. He walked her to her door and asked her again, "Are you sure Angel has never been in your apartment?"

"No, he hasn't," she assured him, trying to give him a reassuring smile and failing miserably.

He looked at her intently for a moment before saying, "I have to go. I'll call you later, when I get back home."

After she closed her door he waited until he could hear her deadbolt slip into place before he made his way back to his car.

Jenny looked around her dark apartment for a moment before going in to the kitchen, sitting down by the table not even bothering to turn on the lights. She couldn't help but wonder how things could have looked so hopeful just a little over an hour ago and now things seemed worse than ever.

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It seemed to Giles like the drive from Jenny's apartment to Willows house took forever. He should have known this would happen eventually. After all, Angelus was famous for it. Torturing his victims by killing those people they were close to, driving them insane. It had only been a matter of time before something like this would happen.

And yet Giles found he was totally unprepared for it. Granted he hadn't known Oz very well, but he had seemed to be such a nice young man. And it was obvious that he cared very deeply for Willow.

Finally, Giles came to a stop outside the Rosenberg’s Residence. As he stepped out of his car he was passed by two coroners carrying a body bag. He stared after them for a second before he quickly made his way up to the house.

As he stepped in he saw Willow sitting on a couch, silent tears running down her face. She was talking to a police officer, Buffy was standing on one side of her and Xander and Cordelia on the other. Buffy was the first to notice him and made her way over to him.

"Giles, thank god you're here," she said, obviously relieved to see him.

"How's Willow holding up?" he asked tentatively.

"Not good. The police keep asking her what happened, but it's not like she can tell them the truth."

"Yes, well... I'm afraid there isn't anything we can do about that."

"I know," she answered, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. "I'm going to have to kill him. He's not going to stop. He's will continue to kill the people I care about, unless I stop him. I wasn't ready before, but I think I finally am."

"Buffy," he tried to interrupt her, but she just kept on talking her voice firm and assertive, "I can't hold on to the past anymore. Angel has gone. Nothing is ever going to bring him back."

"Buffy!" he exclaimed, finally getting her attention. Lowering his voice, he continued, "When you called me I was talk..."

He was interrupted by Willow getting up from the couch and her, Xander and Cordelia making their way over to them.

"Willow..." he began, but words just wouldn’t come to him. There wasn’t really anything one could say in a situation like this.

Willow looks at them for a second before pronouncing, "I'm going to bed," her voice completely voided of emotion.

"Why don't you stay at my house tonight?" Buffy gently asked.

"No. I really just want to be alone," Willow replied, but this time her voice was heavy with grief.

"Willow wait..." Buffy tried to go after her as she started making her way up the stairs, but Giles stopped her.

"I really think it's best to leave her alone for now Buffy."

All four of them exited the house, slowly walking towards their cars. Joyce was standing a bit further down the street by her car, waiting. It was Giles who finally spoke, breaking the dead silence surrounding them, "Listen Buffy, I need to talk to you. In private."

"Oh. Okay." She turned towards Xander and Cordelia, "Night you guys. I’ll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow." Xander sadly replied, before he and Cordelia made their way over to her car.

Buffy turned back towards Giles, curious as to what he wanted to talk about that he couldn’t say in front of the others, "What is it Giles?"

He gestured with his hand for her to follow him, away from eventual prying ears, "When you called me I was um, I was talking to Je... to Ms Calendar." He took a second to collect himself, then held Buffy's gaze before continuing, "She has found a way to translate the curse to restore Angel's soul and well, it looks like she may have succeeded."

"Oh my god," Buffy couldn’t do anything but stare back at him as she tried to take in what this meant. She hardly dared to think that it might actually be true. That there was a chance she could have Angel back.

"Jenny thinks she might be able to perform the ritual," he paused for a moment, trying to gawk her reaction, "If you want her to?"

"I don't know. I mean it's..." she turned and looked up at Willow's window, "I don't know."

"Buffy!" They both turned around, hearing Joyce calling and see her walking towards them, "Are you alright honey?"

"Yeah mom, I just..." she left the sentence hanging.

"Let's go home Buffy. There is nothing you can do for Willow right now."

"Just a minute mom."

"Your mom is right Buffy," Giles intervened. "You don't have to decide anything tonight. Go home and get some sleep and uh, we can talk more tomorrow at school."

She hesitated at first but she knew that he was right, too much had happened for her to be able to make a decision right now. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes," he watched as she got in the car with her mother and drove off. He slowly walked over to his own car and got in. He sat there for a moment, worrying over what tomorrow would bring. He knew that Buffy was right, Angel needed to be stopped one way or another. But first thing first, he had to get home and perform the ritual to keep Angel out of his apartment. Tomorrow would come soon enough.


	3. Burdens That We Bear

**Chapter 3: Burdens That We Bear  
**

Jenny looked around her as she entered the school, all the children talking quietly while walking to their classes. If this were any other city all the classes would have been cancelled, the press would be all over the school and the principle would probably hold a big speech about this awful tragedy. She couldn’t help but be upset by the fact that everybody were so used to disaster and people being killed that everything just continued on like it was any other day.

She stopped for a second, debating whatever or not to go to the library and talk to Rupert. He had called her last night like he'd promised but it had been a very short phone call. Rupert had needed to perform the ritual to keep Angel out and she could hear how exhausted he was. She really wanted to finish the conversation they had started yesterday plus she needed to know if he wanted to perform the curse to restore Angel's soul or not.

Deciding that now wasn't the best time to discuss either of those things, and telling herself that it had absolutely nothing to do with her being worried about what he would say or more accurately worried that he would break things of between them entirely, she headed towards her classroom.

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Giles was deep in thought and hardly noticed all the people surrounding him as he entered the school, heading for the library. He was internally grateful that Oz being killed hadn't caused some huge media frenzy. When he moved to Sunnydale it had been one of his biggest concerns that people would notice all the strange things happening. But luckily enough people seemed more than willing to ignore things that seemed abnormal.

"Giles!" He turned around and saw Xander walking towards him, looking resolute.

"Xander. How are you?"

"Oh I'm ready to get to work," Xander replied, his voice determined.

Giles was suddenly overcome by the feeling that he was not going to like this conversation. Deciding that turning around and walking away would probably be too immature, yes definitely too immature, he pretended that he didn’t understand what Xander was getting at and asked, "Work?" purposely letting his voice give away his irritation.

"On how we are going to kill Angel. You know he killed Oz, now we have to get revenge," Xander explained, talking slowly as if he was addressing a five-year-old.

Feeling his irritation grow Giles decided to put a stop to the conversation, "Listen Xander…"

"Hey," Buffy's tired greeting suddenly interrupted them.

"Hey Buff," Xander answered, his voice suddenly going subdued.

"Have you guys seen Willow?" she asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"I talked to her this morning, she's staying at home today…" Xander answered but then trailed of not knowing what else to say.

"Probably a good idea," Giles put in.

"Speaking of good ideas," Xander went on, "we were just talking about what to do about Angel."

Buffy looked at him for a moment before saying in a confident voice, "Good, I've been thinking about it to." She then turned to Giles and said in a softer tone, "Giles do you think you could tell Ms Calendar to meet us in the library after school? I need to talk to her."

"Yes of course," Giles quickly replied, his mood improving rapidly at the thought of seeing Jenny.

"What do you need to talk to Ms Calendar about?" Xander asked, suddenly confused.

Buffy ignored his question and instead addressed Giles, "I have to go to class, I'll see you later." Then she looked at Xander for a second, as if she was about to say something else but then she sighed and walked away.

"Why does she need to speak to Ms Calendar?" Xander asked again, realizing that there was something going on that he was being left out of.

Before Giles could answer they are interrupted by annoyed Cordelia, "Xander, where have you been. You can't seriously be expecting me to carry all these books buy myself."

For the first time Giles found himself feeling relieved at being interrupted by Cordelia's typical tactless manner and he decided to take advantage of Xander's temporary distraction to go try find Jenny. As he walked away he could hear Cordelia complaining, "As my boyfriend that is your job and you're going to have to start taking it seriously."

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As he had expected Giles found Jenny in the computer classroom getting ready for her next class. She was too busy to notice him at first so he stood in the doorway for a moment, taking in the sight of her.

After a while it became obvious that she was not going to notice him so he softly called out, "Jenny?" trying not to startle her.

She looked up in surprise and gave him a small smile, "Rupert, hey."

"Do you have a minute?"

"Yeah. I don't have class for another hour."

Glad that they were going to be able to talk undisturbed Giles fully entered the classroom, closing the door behind him.

"Did you talk to Buffy?" she asked, but Giles couldn’t help but notice that she sounded very distanced.

Deciding to go one as if he hadn’t noticed anything he answered, "Oh yes. She wanted me to ask you if you could stop by the library after school."

"Sure, no problem," she said, her voice barely audible.

Not able to contain his worry any longer her gently asked her, "Jenny, are you all right?"

"Yeah," she tried to assure him, but her voice and forlorn expression was clearly telling a different story. When Giles just continued to gaze at her in concern, obviously not believing her, she sighed before admitting, "No. I don't know."

"What's wrong?"

"I just… I really thought I could set things right again."

Feeling confused as to what she is referring to and not wanting there to be any misunderstandings between them Giles cautiously asked, "Do you mean with us?"

"With us, with Buffy and Angel, my family, everything… Naive of me, uh."

Feeling himself grow more and more concern at hearing how dejected she sounded Giles tried to reassure her, "No Jenny… You will, no you have set things right. The curse…"

"The curse is too little too late. To many people have already died. First my uncle and now Oz."

Giles felt himself stop cold as her words registered and he exclaimed in shock, "Your uncle? You mean the man in the hotel was your uncle?"

But Jenny was to agitated to even hear his question and rambled on, "I mean even if I do the curse, then what? I mean what's going to happen to Angel, or Buffy and god Willow how is she going to…"

"Jenny!" he shouted to catch her attention and she was so shocked at his sudden outburst that she couldn’t do anything but stare at him. He walked closer to her and gently put his hands on her shoulders, "Listen to me. You are not to blame for what Angelus has done."

She looked at him trying to think of a way to make him understand, "Rupert, it was my duty to make sure Angel never experienced happiness."

He gazed at her intently for a moment before asking in a serious tone, "Did you know Angel was going to lose his soul?"

"Of course not."

"Then there is nothing you could have done to stop this," he said, putting as much force behind the words as he could without shouting.

"You're right," she said, slowly nodding her head but Giles wasn’t convinced that she really believed him. Not wanting her to feel like he was pressuring her he gave her a soft smile and felt his heart swell as he received a genuine smile in return. All of a sudden they both realized how close they were standing. All concrete thoughts disappeared as Giles was overcome with a sudden desire to pour is heart out to. "Jenny I… I want… you to know that I…"

Just then the classroom door flied open and both Giles and Jenny sprang apart in the same moment that principal Snyder barged in shouting, "Aha! I knew I'd found you here. You two really ought to know better than to openly display your pitiful love life in the work place."

"What do you want?!" Giles practically roared, having neither the desire nor the patience to deal with the tyrant who called himself principal.

"I want to know why the library is still closed. You were supposed to open it half an hour ago."

"Right," Giles replied, not knowing what else to say. Work had been the last thing on his mind today. Of course it hardly made a difference since the students weren’t exactly lining up outside the door in the morning waiting for the library to open.

"I strongly suggest you both get back to work," Snyder snidely remarked, no doubt taken great pleasure in seeing them both shaken up. Giles sent a hard glare his way and Snyder wasn’t stupid enough to stand up to him. With one last disgusted glance and a displeased grunt he turned and walked away, purposely leaving the door wide open.

"I guess I should go…" Giles said, the words sounding like they were dragged from him and his body language clearly stating that he didn’t want to leave.

Jenny gave him what she was supposed to be a reassuring smile, "I'm fine Rupert." Apparently she could tell he wasn’t convinced because she repeated, "Really I'm fine, don't worry. I need to finish getting ready for my class anyway."

"I'll see you after school then?"

Jenny nodded in conformation and he gave her one last longing look before he left.

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School had ended and the halls where deserted as Jenny made her way to the library. When she entered she found Giles pacing back and forth. She was pleased to see his face break out in a big smile when he saw her. "Jenny, hello."

"Hi." She looked around what appeared to be an empty room. "Buffy isn't here yet?"

"No, she should be here any second."

Right on cue Buffy walked in. "Hey Buff…"

But before Jenny could finish Buffy cut her off, her voice urgent but hard, "Is it true? You have the curse to give Angel back is soul?"

"Yes," Jenny answered while gesturing towards Giles who held up the printout of the ritual. Seeing the disbelief on the younger woman’s face Jenny continued, "Listen Buffy, I can't guarantee you that it will work, but I think there is a really good chance that it can."

"That what could work?" They all turned in surprise as Xander walked in closely followed by Cordelia.

Nobody knowing what to say a long silence followed Xander's question. It was Giles who finally broke it, "Jenny was able to translate the curse to… to restore Angels soul."

Xander's expression changed from curious to disbelief too angry in a matter of seconds. "What! Wait, you guys can't seriously be thinking about bringing Angel back?" he asked upset and glared angrily at Jenny.

"That's up to Buffy," Jenny answered, trying to keep her voice neutral.

"Xander!" Buffy interrupted them, her voice demanding attention. She then looked at Jenny before saying in an assertive tone, "I want you to do it." She turned her gaze to the others in the room for a moment. "I thought about this all night and went over and over it in my head. And the bottom line is that as long as Angelus is still out there we are all in danger. And this is the safest way to stop him."

Everyone was startled when Xander all of a sudden started clapping his hands. "Brilliant performance Buff," he said, his voice cold and angry. Buffy just looked at him with a hurt expression on her face. "Oh come on. You don't care about the danger we are in. You just want Angel back."

"Now Xander…" Giles tried to intervene, but Buffy cut him off.

"That's not true."

Xander just shook his head and went on, his voice getting angrier by the second, "In case it has slipped everyone's mind, Angel killed Oz last night. You remember Oz? Our friend. But I guess that doesn't matter to you does it. And what about Willow? What are you going to tell her? How do you think Willow is going to fell when she finds out about this?"

"Finds out about what?"

All five of them were startled and quickly turned towards the library door and another deafening silence followed. Willow looked at them for a moment before repeating, "When I find out about what?"


	4. Decisions

The silence dragged on until Buffy finally broke it, "Willow, what are you doing here?" Realizing that her question came out sounding accusing she gently added, "I thought you were going to stay home today."

Willow nodded a little before quietly answering, "I just couldn't stand being in that house anymore. Every time I'd pass by the kitchen window I would look out and…" she stopped herself and took a deep breath, "I figured it would be better If I had something to do." Desperate to change the subject she continued, "Anyway... What where you guys talking about?"

"Listen, Willow-" Giles began to explain, but Buffy cut him off.

"We all thought it would be best if you stayed away from all Hellmouth related things for now." She then directed a quick telling glance towards Giles and Jenny. All the while she carefully avoided looking at Xander, knowing that if she did she would lose her composure.

Nodding her head again, Willow agreed, "Yeah you're probably right. I don't really feel up for anything like that anyway." But then her face took on a confused expression as she addressed Xander, "But why would you think I'd be upset about that?"

But before Xander could answer, Buffy quickly intervened again, "Xander was just worried that you were going to feel left out."

"Oh, okay," Willow looked away for a second and therefore missed the angry look Xander directed at Buffy. "Well don't worry. I totally understand."

"Good," Buffy replied, relieved.

"Why, did something happen?" Willow asked, suddenly worried.

This time Xander spook up, "Yeah Buffy. Has something happened that Willow should know about?" He gave her a challenging look and another long silence followed before Buffy answered, "No," her voice barely audible.

But it was still enough to convince Willow who was too caught up in her own troubles to notice how strange her friends where acting. "Okay," she replied, completely oblivious to the undertone in the conversation, "So what are you all doing here?"

"Actually, we were just about to head out," Buffy replied, a little too cheerful. She then turned to Giles and gave him a questioning look. Giles quickly decided that it was probably for the best if Buffy and Willow could talk in private, "Yes, off with you all.".

Xander on the other hand was not at all pleased with the way things were going and was about to say just that, but a hard glare from Giles stopped him. Buffy looked uncertainly at him before asking, "You guys coming?"

Upset and angry about everything that has happened he harshly replied, "No. Cordelia and I have plans."

"No we don't," Cordelia interrupted, in annoyance.

"Yes we do," he gave his girlfriend a very obvious look, "Besides, I'm sure Buffy and Willow have a lot to talk about." This time it was Buffy who he directed a telling look before heading out with a confused Cordelia following him.

Buffy looked after them for a moment, not really sure what to do now but then she turned to Giles and said, "Giles, can we continue this discussion tomorrow before school?"

"Yes, yes. Tomorrow," Giles answered, trying to sound as encouraging as he could but he felt his worry beginning to grow as he watched Willow and Buffy leave.

"You think Buffy will tell her?" Jenny asked.

"I hope so."

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Buffy and Willow were slowly walking along the now empty corridors. Willow was completely absorbed in her own thoughts and didn’t notice Buffy squirming as she tried to work up the courage to finally speak. "Listen Willow... there's something I need to tell you."

Suddenly noticing how worried her friend sounded Willow immediately tried to clear her head and give Buffy her full attention, "Is something wrong?."

As they arrived at the school cafeteria Buffy gestured towards one of the tables, "Why don't we sit down." She took a moment to gather her thoughts. When the minutes ticked by and Buffy still hadn’t said anything Willow could feel her worry starting to grow. "Buffy what is it?" When her friend didn’t answer she pressed on, "Has something happened?"

"No. Not exactly. The thing is... Something may happen. I..."

Seeing how hesitating her friend was and not feeling like she could deal with anything more at the moment Willow said, "Look Buffy..." she stopped herself, trying to phrase it so that Buffy wouldn’t feel like she didn’t care about what she had to say. "If this thing, whatever it is, hasn't happened yet and you don't know if it's going to happen..." she took a short pause while trying to figure out how to best continue, "Maybe we could have this conversation another time." Seeing the stricken expression on Buffy’s face and worried that she had hurt her feeling she hurried to explain. "Of course if it's something very important I’ll hear you out. But if it can wait... I just don't think I can deal with any more drama right now."

"That's okay," said Buffy, careful not to reveal how relieved she was not to have to tell Willow the truth right now.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," she answered giving her what she hoped was a reassuring smile while unsuccessfully trying to ignore her conscience telling her that she was happy about this for all the wrong reasons.

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It was an exhausted Buffy who arrived at school the next morning. She was feeling extensively guilty for not telling Willow that they were going to try to restore Angels soul. She had arrived as late as she could without being late for her first class, in hope of not having to confront any of her friends.

But her hope was dashed when she heard Xander shout her name, making all the students walking in the corridor turn to look at him. Xander was by most people in the school considered to be a calm and nice although somewhat goofy guy and this sudden outburst would quickly become the topic in today’s gossip mill.

Trying to smother the sense of dread starting to build in her Buffy said a gentle, "Hey," when he had made is way to her, and she was the only one who wasn’t surprised by his angry outburst. She could feel her stomach tightening in one huge knot but she knew that she had no choice but to have this conversation, which would without a doubt soon develop into another argument.

"Well?" Xander impatiently asked, and deliberatively ignored her greeting.

"Well what?" Buffy replied, trying to stall the upcoming argument for as long as she could.

"Have you told Willow yet?" Growing more and more uncomfortable she diverted her eyes and Xander pressed on, lowering his voice so that nobody else could hear. "You know, how you're planning on saving the vampire who killed her boyfriend."

"Xander..." Buffy began, but then cut herself of knowing that there was nothing she could say that would satisfy him.

"I'll take that as a no," he stated in an emotional voice, which was totally unlike the angry outburst she was expecting.

Hearing how betrayed he sounded she desperately wanted to make him understand. "You saw how upset she was yesterday. I can't tell her yet," she tried to explain.

But Xander just shook his head saying, "That her best friend is stabbing her in the back you mean?" His anger returning in full force.

"I will tell her. I'm just going wait a few days until she feels better," she insisted, trying to keep her voice as reasonable as possible, hoping to calm him.

But her words had the opposite effect as Xander started getting more agitated. "Are you mental? Angel killed her boyfriend, she's never going to get over that." They look at each other for a long while until Xander continued, the anger in his voice replaced with a cold cutting tone, "You're going to have to make a choice Buffy." Seeing the shattered expression on Buffy's face he stopped for a second, before saying in an ice cold voice, "Willow or Angel."

"You're wrong," she answered, trying to sound as assertive as she could, not sure if she was trying to convince Xander or herself.

"We will just have to see about that now won't we?" he said, before he turned and walked away, leaving a devastated Buffy standing, not even noticing the bell ringing. She was not sure how long she has been standing there when she heard Giles calling out to her. She turned and was faced with a very worried watcher.

"Buffy, is everything okay?" he asked, his concern clear.

"Uh... Yeah. Yeah I'm fine." Buffy responded while nodding her head to reinforce her answer.

"Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Right." She just then realized that the corridors were empty, but she didn’t make any attempt to move.

Trying to figure out what it was that she was so upset about Giles gently inquired, "Buffy. Did you tell Willow?" But Buffy was still lost in her own thoughts and didn’t answer him so he clarifies, "About Angel."

As she finally registered Giles words she gave a low, "No," in response.

Realizing that his concerns where valid he tried to persuade her, "Buffy you have to te-"

But before he could finish Buffy cut him off with a short, "I have to get to class," and before he had the chance to stop her she walked away.

"Buffy!" he yelled after her, but she just quickened her strides.

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"Okay that's all for today. Don't forget that you have to hand in your assignment at Friday at the latest," Jenny announced to her class just as the bell rang for lunch. As all the students quickly got up, hurrying to the cafeteria as if their lives depended on it, she noticed Willow was still sitting in front of her computer starring at the blank screen. She hesitated for a second, worried about what Willow thought about the fact that she had offered to restore Angel's soul. But when Willow still didn’t make any attempt to leave she felt she had to say something to the girl so she softly asked, "Willow? How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," Willow answered, still starring at the screen. But then she finally noticed that the rest of the class had left and started to get up.

"Listen, if you don't feel like you can manage this week’s assignment I totally understand. And it's not like you have to worry about falling behind."

But Willow just shook her head and gave her a small smile, "Thanks Ms Calendar, but I really just want to keep busy." 

"Okay," she replied, wanting to say something more to try and comfort the girl but not knowing what she could possibly say that wouldn’t sound like a cliche.

Willow gathered her books and started moving towards the door, but then she stopped. "Ms Calendar."

"Yeah."

"I'm really glad that things are getting better between you and Giles," she said in a heartfelt tone.

Jenny swore she could feel her heart breaking, that the girl would even care about such a thing at a time like this, "Thank you."

Before she could say anything else however, Giles entered the classroom. "Jenny I..." He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Willow. "Oh... Hello, how are... How are you?"

"I'm okay," she repeated again, her tone of voice and body language telling a completely different story. "I should go to lunch," she added after a short silence, neither Jenny nor Giles knowing what to say. Jenny was still feeling overwhelmed and Giles was still reeling from the discovery that Willow didn’t know what was going on.

"Right. Yes. Of course," he eventually responded.

Jenny gave him a bewildered look as Willow left, "Is something wrong?"

Giles waited until Willow was a safe distance away and closed the door before answering, "Buffy hasn't told Willow, about the curse."

"What! Why?" Jenny exclaimed, instantly upset.

"I have no idea," he answered truthfully.

But that wasn't good enough for Jenny, who was starting to work herself up. Unfortunately for Giles he was the only one there in reach of her wrath, "Rupert, she has to tell her," Jenny practically yelled at him.

Getting frustrated that Jenny was getting angry he argued back, "I know!" Realizing that he wasn't helping the situation he took a deep breath to calm himself and repeated in a much gentler voice, "I know."

"Are we still doing the ritual?" she asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep the agitation out of her voice.

"I don't know. I tried to talk to Buffy but she..." he trailed of. After a moment of consideration Giles went over to her and once again he gently put his hands on her shoulders. They looked at each other intently for a moment before he leaned down and gave her a long slow kiss. As they broke apart and he saw Jenny's surprised expression he teasingly said, "I figured I should act quickly before Snyder storms in again." She rewarded him with a bright smile, which soon spilled over into genuine laughter.

He gave her a big smile in return as he said, "Listen, why don't you come by the library after your last class? That way we can prepare everything if Buffy still wants us to do the ritual." Jenny nodded. "Good." He gave her one last kiss before he left.


	5. Consequences

Later that day Giles and Jenny were in the library setting everything up in preparation to do the ritual. They worked in silence for the most part, Giles giving Jenny concerned glances before he finally asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Jenny looked up at him, surprised by the question, "I'm sure."

"You do understand that... channelling... such potent magic through yourself, it could..."

"I know Rupert," she interrupted his rambling and gave him a reassuring smile, "I'll be fine."

Nothing else was said on the subject as Buffy walked in. She looked at them both uncertainly and then she noticed all the things set up at the table. "You guys have everything you need?" she quickly asked, hoping to avoid another discussion.

"All set," Jenny answered her.

Giles looked at the door behind her before tentatively asking, "Is Xander coming?"

Buffy gave a short, "No," in response.

It was clear that Buffy didn’t want to talk about it, but Giles felt that this conversation couldn’t wait and pressed on, "When do you plan to tell Willow?"

She gave him a pleading look but when he just stared back she reluctantly answered, "I... I don't know."

He gave her a disapproving look, "You have to tell her." Seeing how guilty Buffy looked he softened his tone and sympathetically said, "It's not going to get any easier."

Desperately Buffy tried to defend her actions, "We don't even know if this is going to work. It's possible that there won’t be anything to tell her." Giles gave her a helpless look but decided that there was no idea in pressuring her to much right know.

Seeing that Giles had given up Jenny intervened, "Buffy, Rupert is right. You should tell Willow has soon as possible. She deserves to know."

Feeling frustrated and angry Buffy gave Jenny a cold glare and bluntly said, "Funny you would say that, considering how long you were lying to all of us."

"Buffy!" Giles exclaimed in shock.

But Jenny's temper had already gotten a hold of her and before she could stop herself she responded, "Perhaps considering how angry you got at me for lying you should think twice about not telling Willow the truth."

"Jenny, please," Giles said, trying to prevent the argument from going any further.

Jenny and Buffy both fall silent and stare each other down. It's Buffy who finally spoke, challengingly, "Are you going to do the ritual or not?"

Giving up, Jenny responded with a defeated, "Fine." She then turned to Giles and asked, "You ready?"

"Yes," he answered and picked up a thick book.

Jenny seated herself cross-legged on the table. Before her she had the Orb of Thesulah within a sacred circle surrounded by candles, bones and stones. She started by casting some stones and then she gave Giles a nod to signal that he should proceed. Giles opened the book and read, "Quod perditum est, invenietur."

He swirled some incense into the air and Jenny started incanting, "Not dead nor not of the living. Spirits of the interregnum I call... Let him know the pain of humanity, gods. Reach your wizened hands to me. Give me the sword..." she stopped for a second, feeling out of breath, "I call on..." she started panting.

"Jenny are you okay?" Giles asked, concerned.

But then Jenny's head snapped back and she looked up at the ceiling, her eyes wide open. Then her head snapped back down and she stared into the Orb. She began to chant steadily in Romanian. "Te implor, Doamne, nu ignora aceasta rugaminte."

"Is she okay?" Buffy worriedly asked, but Giles just shrugged his shoulders in response, his eyes steadily on Jenny.

"Nici mort, nici al fiintei... Lasa orbita sa fie vasul care-i va transporta, sufletul la el." Suddenly the table started to lurch hard. "Asa sa fie! Asa sa fie! Acum!" "Acum!" The Orb glowed for a brief moment and then went dark. Jenny’s whole body suddenly relaxed and she looked around in momentarily confusion.

Giles was instantly at her side, helping her of the table and into the nearest chair when her legs weren’t capable of holding her upright. "Are you okay?" he asked in evident concern.

"Yeah, I think so," Jenny assured him, her voice shaky.

"Did it work?" Buffy asked after a while, hardly daring to hope.

It took Jenny a second before she was able to answer, her head still a little clouded, "I'm not sure. I think so."

Buffy studied her closely before suddenly turning and heading for the door. "Where are you going?" Giles called after her, although he already knew the answer to his question.

"I have to find him," Buffy said, the urgency clear in her voice.

"What if it didn't work?" Giles tried to reason with her, but seeing her determined expression he realized it was no use, "You shouldn't go alone."

"I have to. It's too dangerous for anybody else to go anyway." She stopped and seemed to struggle with what she was about to say. "Ms Calendar." When the other woman looked at her she said in a strained voice, "Thank you."

Giles watched her leave with mixed emotion. Deciding that it wouldn’t do any good to worry about it now he turned his attention back to the woman next to him. Seeing how exhausted she looked he helped her stand up and put his arm around her waist too steady her. "Come on. I'm going to get you home."

"Hmm... I like the sound of that," Jenny said, somehow managing to sound both teasing and seductive at once.

Realizing what she was implying Giles nervously started to stutter, "Ah... yes, well..."

But Jenny just laughed, "Relax Rupert."

Giles decided that it is probably best if he didn’t respond and lead her out of the school, trying to hide the blush he could feel beginning to spread on his face.

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The graveyard laid quiet and deserted as Buffy slowly made her way in the dark, trying to hear any movement. All of a sudden she could sense someone moving behind her. Making sure she had a firm grip on her stake she turned around as calmly as she could manage, careful not to let her face betray her anxiety. "Angelus," she said, relieved that she managed to keep her voice strong.

At first he simply looked at her in confusion before letting out a weak, "Buffy..."

At first she could only stare at him not daring to hope, eventually she managed to choke out, "Angel?" She took a careful step towards him, but then came to a halt afraid that he was going to either bolt or go to attack. She stood and looked at him for what felt like an eternity, seeing the pain reflected in his eyes she realizes the truth. "You're back". The next second she has thrown herself across the space separating them into his arms, clinging to him as if she would never let go.

"Buffy, what happened?"

She drew back to look at him trying to find the words. "You... You lost your soul. And you..." she stopped herself, not knowing how to tell him all the horrible things that had happened.

"Buffy, I'm so sorry."

"Angel, it wasn't your fault," she immediately replied.

Buffy tried to stop him as he began to pull away, but he held up his arms to ward her of while trying to make sense of all the confusion. "Why... why am I back? I mean how?"

"Ms Calendar, she performed the ritual to give you back your soul."

"Ms Calendar?"

Buffy took a step towards him but stopped when he started to back away from her. "She's a gypsy, from the Kalderash clan, she..." she trailed of as see realized that she had lost his attention. "Angel?" Seeing that he was still in a daze she decided that the best thing for right now was to take him back to her house.

They slowly made their way towards Buffy's house, Angel making sure to keep some distance between them. In a stroke of luck Joyce wasn’t home yet. They went upstairs and Angel took a long look around Buffy's, room, seeming to become somewhat more relaxed at the familiar surroundings.

In the meantime Buffy kept quiet, restraining herself from pouring her heart out to him not wanting to push him. But suddenly she noticed that his face had taken on a fare away expression, as if he was remembering something. She held her breath until he uttered the words she somehow knew was coming.

"Did I... Did I kill Oz?"

"Angel, it wasn't your fault," she repeated again, desperate to try and make him understand that he couldn’t blame himself. "There wasn't anything you could have done. Angel please listen to me."

But Angel was already starting to panic, the only thing on his mind were to get out of there, as far away as possible. "No. No! I can't I... I have to go."

"Go?"

"I have to get out of here." And before she could react he jumped out through the window, glass shattering everywhere.

She was not sure how long she stood there, it could have been seconds or several hours. She was broken out of her daze as she heard the front door open and her mother announcing that she was home. She listened as her mother walked up the stairs but didn’t answer when she called out asking if she was still awake. Instead she made her way over to the bed and got under the covers, not even bothering to take her clothes of. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the breeze coming from the broken window. After a long while she fell into a restless sleep.

When she woke up it was still dark outside, but she could feel his presence. Quickly she reached out and turned on the bedside lamp. She saw him standing there watching her and for a second she was scared that it was all a dream, that he was there to kill her. Before she could say anything he spoke up, his voice rough, "I have to go back."

Still groggy from sleep she shook her head trying to clear it. "Back? Back to where?"

"To the warehouse. To Spike and Drusilla."

Immediately the dread started building up in her again and she forcefully exclaimed, "You can't."

"I have to Buffy," he said, defeated.

"They will kill you," she tried to reason with him, desperate to make him see that he couldn’t do this.

"No they won't. They have no idea my soul has been restored." He knew that she was not going to agree with him, but he had already made his mind up so he tried to explain to her, "Buffy this may be the only way to stop them."

But in that moment she didn’t care about any of that. All she cared about was to have Angel back safe and sound and she knew there was no way she could let him do this. "No. No! It is too dangerous."

"Buffy I have to do something. I can't just... I have to do something."

Realizing that he wasn’t listening to her objections she pleaded with him, "Angel please..."

He looked at her in silence for a moment before quietly saying, "I'm sorry Buffy." And in the next instance he jumped out the window once again.

"Angel!" She yelled after him as she ran to the window. But it was too late, he was already gone.

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"I'm fine," Jenny told him for what felt like the hundredth time as they entered her apartment.

"Are you sure?" he asked again, clearly not convinced by her reassurance.

"Yes I'm sure. Really I'm just a little tired."

"Well that's only to be expected. You've... channelled some very dark powers."

Deciding that a change in topic was in order Jenny asked, "Do you want some coffee?" as she headed towards the kitchen. But before she could make it further than to the threshold Giles quickly interrupted her, "Why don't you let me do that."

Deciding that it was best to just humour him she answered, "Okay. Thanks."

Giles made his way in to the kitchen and Jenny stood at the doorway watching him while he brew the coffee. She couldn’t help but feel amused by how nervous he seems by her scrutiny. After what felt like an eternity to Giles the coffee was finally ready. "Here you go," he said as he gives her a cup. Jenny gave him a coy smile before she took a sip of her coffee, trying to ignore the heaps of sugar he had added.

Standing there Giles all of a sudden came to the conclusion that he had to tell her what he had been trying to say for the last two days and the words started pouring out of him. "Listen Jenny... there is something I have wanted to tell you for... well for a while know. And this time I don't want there to be any interruptions."

"Sounds important," she gently teased him, trying to break him out of whatever worries that seemed to have surrounded him. But all he answered in return was a serious, "It is."

"Okay." Seeing that this wasn’t the right time to tease him she led him into the living room. They sat down on the large comfortable couch and Jenny put down her cup on the table, the coffee now completely forgotten. Seeing how nervous he looked she reached out and grasped his hand.

Encouraged by the gentle gesture he began, "Jenny." He took a deep breath before saying the words that he had been longing to say for the past three days, "I love you."

She couldn’t help her impulse to give him a smug smile while saying as nonchalant as she could manage, "I know." But then her expression grew serious, "I love you too."

It was impossible to tell who moved first, but in the next moment they were looked in a passionate kiss. Jenny broke away from the kiss long enough to ask, "Bedroom?"

Giles got a mischievous look in his eyes and began kissing her neck as he asked in a low sultry voice, "You still tired?"

Jenny gave a heartfelt laugh as she answered, "No." And after that, well let’s just say that there wasn't much time for talking.


	6. Lost In Translation

After getting over the worst of the shock Buffy tried to go to sleep, she really did, but it was simply impossible with all the million thoughts running through her head. After an hour lying in bed tossing and turning she came to the conclusion that she simply couldn’t wait, she had to talk to Angel as soon as possible. She was far from ready to give up, there had to be something she could do or say to convince him not to go back to Spike and Drusilla. After making her way out the broken window as quiet as possible she headed towards the cemetery. She had no idea if he would go there but since she didn't know where else to look it was her best shot.

It was not until she entered the cemetery that the revelation came to her that he might have already gone back to the warehouse. What if that was the case, was there any way she would be able to get a hold of him? Or what if his cover had already been blown. They could be torturing or killing him right this moment. She almost turned and ran right there but was able to get a hold of herself. There was no reason to suspect that something had happened to him. He probably wasn't even at the warehouse yet and even if he was, her bursting in wouldn't accomplice anything. Except maybe getting them both killed.

She stopped dead in her tracks as she heard someone grunting a few yards ahead of her. She slowly started making her way to where the noise came from, making sure to stay hidden in the shadows. Coming closer she could see that the noise was coming from two dark figures digging up a grave. Getting even closer she could clearly see that it was two vampires, their fangs illuminated by the moonlight. She reached for her stake while quietly making her way towards them. At first both of them were too busy digging to notice her, but just as she was about to strike one of them looks up and noticed her, "Hey!"

As the other vampire quickly turned around she made a swing and staked him in the chest, he instantly turns to dust. At the same time the other vampire made a lung at her, she was able to block the first punch but the other hit her straight in the face and she got knocked to the ground, somewhat surprised at the force of the blow. Before he could attack again however she was able to get in a good kick, knocking him down. Quickly she jumped and straddles him while keeping her stake in a steady grip, aimed right at his heart.

"What where you doing? What are you looking for?" she angrily demanded to know.

"What is it to you?" he asked calmly, not seeming at all worried.

"Have vampires turned in to simple grave digging thieves now?"

That comment seems to get to him and he yelled, "Listen, it's my fucking amulet!"

"What amulet?" she asked, suddenly intrigued that this seemed to have been more than a random grave plundering.

But before she could get an answer Buffy felt something hard hitting her in the back of the head, making her fall to the ground once again. "Let's get out of here!" she heard a female voice shouting and she was vaguely aware of the vampire she was fighting getting to his feet and hearing them running away. After a minute of gathering her wits she got up, her head feeling like it's about to explode. She looked around the graveyard searching for any sign of the two vampires but the cemetery was completely empty.

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More than a few students turned their heads as Giles entered the school that morning. Not only was the normally subdued librarian smiling a very goofy smile, but he was actually whistling. Giles himself didn't take any notice to the fact that the whole school seemed to be watching him as he made his way to the library, he was too caught up in his on happiness to care. Entering the library he found Buffy sitting at the table with several books spread out. She looked up as she heard him come in.

"Buffy," he exclaimed happily, his surprise at seeing her there reading for what might be the first time not dampening his current blissful state in the slightest.

"Hey," was the only answer she was able to give him, momentarily stunned by his cheerful demeanour. "You seem pretty pleased this morning?"

"Ah, yes w-well..." he answered, while trying to come up with a good change of topic. "Was-s there something you wanted? How did it go last night?"

"I went to the graveyard and I found two vampires digging up this grave. I was able to stake one of them but while I was trying to get the other one to tell me what they were after another vampire hit me from behind, they were both able to get away before I could stop them."

"Are you alright?" he asked, instantly concerned.

"I'm fine. I was able to find out that they were looking for some kind of an amulet. I've been reading in this book that some amulets can be the source of great powers if they are used in rituals."

"Yes, but Buffy..." he tried to interrupt her rambling.

"Giles this could be important. I'm going to go back to the cemetery again tonight and see who's grave they were digging up, maybe that could tell us something about which amulet they were after."

"Yes, that's all well and good but, but how else did it go last night? Did-d you find Angel?" Seeing how Buffy all of a sudden seemed to be refusing to meet his gaze he began feeling apprehensive. "Buffy, did the ritual work?"

"The ritual?!" they suddenly hear Xander exclaiming loudly enough to be heard over the sound of the doors closing behind them. Giles turned around to find a very angry looking Xander standing there. Xander however hardly seemed to notice Giles presence at all, his gaze was focused solely on Buffy. "So you did it. Why am I not surprised?" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "So how did it go? Got your boyfriend back did you?"

"No!" Buffy angrily interrupted him. Seeing Xander standing their radiating anger she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth and have to defend herself again. Coming to a decision she braced herself and said, "It didn't work. He didn't get his soul back." It took all the strength she had not to look away as she lied right to their faces.

"Are you sure?" Giles carefully asked.

"Yeah. I'm sure," she answered, suppressing the urge to tell him what really happened.

"Buffy I'm sorry." Giles heartfelt declaration was too much for her to bear and she had no choice but to look away, afraid that she was going to break down any moment.

But then Xander spoke, his voice as hard as steel, "I'm not. On the contrary, I'm glad to hear it."

"Why am I not surprised?" Buffy shoot back, repeating his earlier comment.

"N-now listen," Giles tried to interrupt them, but Buffy had had enough.

"I have to get to class."

"Buffy!" Giles called after her, but she didn’t answer. As the doors closed behind her he directs a displeased look at Xander who exclaimed in an annoyed tone, "What?" before he too walked out of the library, leaving a now distraught Giles.

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"Hey," Jenny said brightly as she entered the library later that afternoon. Giles looked up from the new books he was inspecting and could feel his mood improve rapidly at the sight of her.

"Missed you," she declared as she leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss. Sensing his distraction she drew back, "What's wrong?"

"The ritual didn't work."

Jenny unconsciously took a step back from him in surprise, "What?"

"Angels soul wasn't restored."

Her initial reaction had her absolutely stunned. She had been almost positive that the translation of the curse had been correct, and she knew she had felt the magic pouring through her. There was no way she could have mistaken that. Consequently, her second reaction was one of definite denial. "That's not possible. It should have worked, I felt it work," she tried to convince him, but she gave up when she saw his resigned expression. "Well fine, we will just try again."

"Jenny t-there is no point, if it didn't work the first time it won't work now," Giles attempted to reason with her.

But there was no way she was willing to throw in the towel now. There had to be some sort of explanation to why it hadn't worked, "Maybe we did it wrong, or maybe there was something wrong in the translation."

"Even if that's true, which isn't very likely, it's way too dangerous."

"Isn't it at least worth a try?" she asked, perplexed that he seemed to have given up.

"No I-I don't think it is. You were exhausted after we did the ritual yesterday, doing it again could drain you completely. Besides it's v-very dangerous channelling that kind of magic, way too much can go wrong," he pleaded with her to understand. "Jenny I know you wanted to help, but it's not worth it at the risk of you getting hurt." Seeing that she was finally starting to listen to him he closed the distance between them and gathered her into his arms before continuing, "We tried, it didn't work, we just have to accept that."

Jenny let her hands roams up his chest, wrapping them around his neck and pulled him closer for another kiss. They were both to wrapped up in each other to notice when Xander, Cordelia and Willow walked in. That is until Cordelia exclaimed, "Eww! Isn't there some kind of rule against teachers smooching each other on school grounds?"

"If there isn't there should be, you're going to give me nightmares," Xander agreed.

"Was there something you wanted?" Giles sharply asked as he let go of Jenny, not at all sharing their amusement.

It was Willow who answered him. "I thought maybe Buffy would be here, she told me about those vampires from last night and I promised her I'd help her find out who's grave they were digging up."

"What vampires?" Jenny asked.

"I'll tell you about it later," Giles told her before responding to Willow, "I-I haven't seen Buffy since this morning."

A little worried Willow said, "I should give her a call. Giles, can I borrow the phone?"

"Yes, yes of course," he answered, but Willow was already heading for the office. Waiting until the door closed behind her Jenny asked, "I take it she still doesn't know?"

"No," Giles simply answered.

Suddenly the fact that the ritual hadn't worked was the last thing on her mind. She understood that this must all be very hard for Buffy, but Willow still had a right to know what was going on. And if Buffy wasn't prepared to tell her then somebody else would have to, it was a mystery to her that Xander hadn't already. He had seemed perfectly willing to do so before. "Well shouldn't somebody tell her?" she asked them, clearly thinking that the answer was obvious.

"It really is Buffy’s responsibility to-o tell and she doesn't seem too eager to do so," Giles told her.

"She has a right to now," she argued.

"If the ritual had worked I would agree with you. But it d-didn't and telling her now could only hurt her. S-so unless Buffy decides to tell her I don't think we should."

Before Jenny could object again Cordelia jumped in, "I think Giles is right, I mean nobody wants to know their friends have been stabbing them in the back. Just look how angry everybody got at you," she said to Jenny in an attempt to be helpful.

"I agree," Xander said, surprising everyone. Jenny didn’t think she could have been any more shocked if he had told them he was planning on joining the math club. Seeing their confusion he explained himself, "Willow doesn't need to deal with this right now. Besides like Giles said the ritual didn't work so there was really no harm done."

"I can't believe this," Jenny said in disbelief.

Before anyone could say anything else Willow came out of the office, effectively silencing them. She didn’t seem to notice anything unusual however. "I talked to Buffy. She said her mother had grounded her, something about a broken window. She suggested we all meet here tomorrow to see what we can find out about this amulet."

"Well you can count me out," Cordelia quickly answered. "I have an appointment to get my hair done tomorrow. And I really don't fancy going to school on a Saturday."

"Well, what do you say we all go to the Bronze to celebrate the end of another week of school?" Xander asked in an upbeat tone, directing the question at Cordelia while putting an arm around her waist. Then he looked at Jenny and Giles and offered, "You two old people can come to if you want."

"No, thank you."

"Suit yourselves. Willow?"

Willow gave him a small smile but shook her head. "You guys go, I think I'm going to call it an early night."

Xander was just about to tell her that they could drop her of on their way but before he got the chance Jenny jumped in, releasing that this was the perfect time to get to talk to Willow alone. "Need a ride home?"

"Yeah, thanks Ms Calendar."

Jenny looked over at Giles not quite meeting his gaze, knowing he wouldn’t be happy about this. "I'll come back in a little while, you're going to stay here a bit longer right?"

"Yes." He directed a concerned look at Willow before stepping closer to Jenny and whispering, "Jenny, you shouldn't tell her."

Ignoring his request she took a deep breath before asking the young girl, "You ready?"


	7. Keeping Up Appearances

The drive to Willow's house was spent mostly in silence. Jenny made a few attempts to get the girl to talk, without much success. As it where Jenny's attempts at conversation was hardly shrewd, but right now she was too caught up in her own dilemma. Should she do as Rupert wanted or should she tell Willow the truth.

As they came to a stop outside the Rosenberg’s residence she came to the decision that she couldn’t let the girl leave without at least trying to comfort her. "Listen Willow, I understand you probably want to be left alone right now and it might be hard to talk about what happened. I just want you to know that if you do need someone to talk to I'm here for you."

That earned her what seemed to be a genuine smile. "Thanks Ms Calendar, I really appreciate that. And I want to say I'm sorry, about all of us being so hard on you before. And I want you to know that I don't blame you. I consider you, we all consider you part of the group and a really good friend."

"About that..." Jenny tried to interrupt her, no longer caring about Rupert's warning not to say anything.

But Willow didn’t pay heed to the interruption. "Please let me finish, it feels really good to know I have friends that I can depend on right now. I don't know what I would do if it wasn't for all you guys. I'm really grateful." Feeling better to have gotten all that off her chest she asked, "I'm sorry, what where you going to say?"

Realizing that Rupert was right and that telling her the truth now would only hurt her, she simply answered, "Just that, I consider you a good friend to."

Willow gave her another genuine smile. "Thanks for the lift. I guess I'll see you tomorrow at the library?"

"Yeah, absolutely," Jenny replied, trying to sound upbeat.

"Bye," she said as she got out of the car. She gave Jenny a small wave before making her way up the driveway. Trying to shake of the quilt she was feeling Jenny started the car and headed back towards the school.

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Giles was in an indignant state, pacing back and forth waiting for Jenny to return to the library, worried that she would have told Willow the truth. To be fair to her, she had never made any sort of promise that she wouldn't and he could clearly see why she would think Willow should know. But if it was one thing he had learned during his years as a watcher, especially as Buffy's watcher, it was that meddling in the slayers personal affairs could have very dire results.

His thoughts were interrupted when Jenny finally walked through the door, but judging by the look on her face he guessed that things wasn't about to become any better. He reined in his first impulse to grill her about what happened, since the last thing he wanted was to cause another argument between them, especially now that things were going so well. "You told Willow," he said, more stating a fact than asking a question.

"No."

"N-No?" Giles asked, in honest surprise.

"I was going to but... I couldn't. You were right, she needs her friends right now and telling her would only make her feel like she has no one to turn to."

"But you're still upset," he added, noticing her detached expression. "Why?"

"Because when she finally does finds out she's going to feel betrayed."

"Is this about... the way that, that we all treated you when we found out?" he carefully inquired, remembering Cordelia’s remark earlier.

"I guess… sort of. Don't get me wrong, you had every right to be mad at me, but I didn't tell you the truth because I thought it was the right thing to do. Just like you think it's right not to tell Willow. And it probably is, but when the truth comes out that won't matter."

"You're right. We haven't talked much about that but I-I want you to now that I'm really sorry about the way I treated you."

"You don't have anything to apologize for."

"Yes I do..." he argued, but before he could say anything else she cut him off.

"No, you had a right to be upset."

"Y-Yes well, erm, still I-I took it to far and I know I hurt you. I was just, mostly I was just upset, and-d worried that... everything had been a lie and that... y-you didn't really care-e about me." His tone and the expression of pain on his face was almost too much for Jenny to endure.

"No, Rupert I never lied about my feelings for you," she urgently insisted.

"I know." Seeing how upset his revelation had made her he tried to assure her, "Really Jenny, I do know that now."

She reached out and started stroking his arm lightly. "Rupert, I need you to listen to me. Everything that happened between us was real. I had no idea that you where the Watcher until you told me, I wasn't ordered to befriend you and if my family had known they would have been furious with me. I didn't even know that you guys knew Angel before that night when the Master tried to open the Hellmouth. After that I spent the entire summer trying to convince myself to stay away and I knew I shouldn't let myself get closer to you but, I just couldn't help myself."

"I understand," he said, his voice soothing. "Trust me, I couldn't doubt that, not after everything you've done to try and set things right."

"I had to correct the mistakes I'd done."

"I understand. But you weren't the only one who made mistakes. I know I hurt you and for that I am eternally sorry." As she stepped closer he enfolded her in his arms, resting his chin on top of her head as he cradled her against him. "I love you Jenny."

"I love you too," she murmured into his chest. When they finally pulled apart Jenny suddenly noticed all the books lying on the table. "What's all this?"

"I was looking for some sort of information about the vampires Buffy ran in to yesterday. Unfortunately I don't have a clue of where to look, or for what for that matter."

"What exactly happened?"

"Buffy came across a couple of vampires digging up a grave, she staked one but two others managed to get away. All she knew was that they were apparently looking for some kind of amulet."

"What would a vampire need an amulet for? Aren't they usually used for protection?"

"Yes," he exclaimed, instantly excited to further relate on the subject. "It's not something common in the underworld, although there have been a few incidents where amulets have been used in rituals to communicate with demons." He handed her a book, the centre spread showing a hideous looking demon as he added as an afterthought, "Rather unpleasant prospects, especially if..." he trailed of, not sure if he wanted to finish that thought.

"If what?"

"Well it..." he hesitated again, but at the slightly impatient look Jenny gave him he continued, "It did occur to me that these vampires might be connected, to Angelus."

"And if they are?" she prodded, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"Well, Angel has a history of being," he struggled for a moment to come up with an appropriate word before settling on, "atrocious. If he is the one looking for this amulet then the consequences could be catastrophic."

"I have a pretty good idea of what you mean," she broke him of.

"Oh... right, of course."

"So did you find anything useful?"

"Well no I, I'm afraid that I don't have much to go one." That and he hadn't been able to concentrate. "Maybe I can find out something when we know who's grave it was."

Deciding to drop the discussion for now she seductively asked him, "So, you're all done here for tonight?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Excellent! Your place or mine?" she asked, giving him her best 'cat got the milk' smile. And just like that, Giles good mood from this morning returned.

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Even though Angel had been definite in his decision to go back to the warehouse, he had been in a too emotional state to do so directly. He knew Spike would be suspicious of him being gone for so long, but there was no way he would have been able to hide the fact that he had his soul back. He couldn't risk slipping up, especially with Spike still being suspicious and watching his every move just waiting for him to make a mistake.

So he had spent the day hiding in the basement of an old abandoned house, trying to prepare for going back to the warehouse. Truth be told he wasn't completely sure he would be able to pull it off, that he would be able to repress the guilt and despair that was threatening to overwhelm him. There was a small part of him that wished he hadn't been cursed again, that Buffy would have just staked him. Of course he hadn't been able to tell Buffy this, she was enough upset about things as it was.

As he had predicted, the moment he entered the warehouse he heard Spikes cutting voice calling out, "Where the hell have you been?"

Making sure his face revealed nothing but contempt he sneered in response, "Hunting." He was hoping that the less information he volunteered the better chance he would have that his long absence wouldn't cause to much speculation.

"Must have been quite a feast," Spike pointed out, obviously expecting some sort of explanation. When Angel didn’t offer one he changed the subject, "Well why you were out lollygagging, I have actually been doing some important work."

"Yeah, like what? Your usefulness his pretty limited these days," Angel answered gesturing towards the wheelchair, not having to fake the scorn in his voice.

If it was one thing he wouldn't have to pretend about it was the hostility between him and Spike. For a moment he thought that this might go easier than he originally thought. An assessment that was shattered as Spike announced, "I've been figuring out a way to get rid of the slayer once and for all."

Careful not to let his worry show he frowned, deciding that mockery might be the best approach and said, "You might not want to be too sure about that, seeing how all you're other attempts have failed."

"You're one to talk," Spike was quick to remind him.

"Oh but this is good Angel, really, really good," Drusilla interrupted them, her words full of anticipation.

"What is it?" Angel asked, making sure to direct the question at Drusilla.

But it was Spike who answered him, "We have decided to keep this under wraps for now."

"It's a surprise," Drusilla added, giggling.

"I don't like surprises."

"My, my, why so impatient?" Spike questioned, clearly enjoying having the upper hand.

"Just tell me!" Angel snapped.

"Oh don't worry. I'll tell you," Spike said in an oddly comforting tone, before giving a humourless laugh, "eventually."

Growling in frustration Angel walked away. He needed to come up with a discreet way to get them to tell him what was going on. They wouldn't question him getting angry, it was common for him and Spike to try and upstage each other. But he had to be careful not to let them see his anxiety.

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They had all agreed to meet in the library at noon the next day. Buffy purposely arrived a little earlier in hopes of finding Giles alone. She had laid awake most of the night feeling guilty for not having told the truth about Angel. She still wasn't ready for Xander and Willow to find out dreading their reactions, but she had decided that she should tell Giles as soon as possible. When she first walked in it seemed as if the library was empty, but then Giles stepped out of his office. "Ah, Buffy, hello."

"Hey." She looked questioningly around the library, "Is anyone else here?"

"Uh, no, not yet."

She nervously started wringing her hands as she sat down at the table, Giles taking a seat opposite her. "I need to talk to you," she began, not sure how to proceed. "About yesterday... about Angel."

"Oh," Giles sighed in resignation and looked directly at her. "Listen, Buffy, I think I know what you want to talk about."

"You do?"

"Yes. When you told me about the vampires you encountered, it occurred to me that Angel is most likely involved."

"No, Giles, that isn't w..."

She was cut off suddenly by Cordelia exclaiming, "Well, I hope you're all happy."

They both turned to look at her in surprise and confusion. "What are you talking about?" Buffy asked, more than a little annoyed to have been interrupted.

Cordelia however didn’t acknowledge Buffy's irritation and proceeded to inform them of her current complaint, "Well after my appointment at the saloon was cancelled, I phoned all my friends and every single one already had plans for the day."

"And this is our fault because?" Buffy sarcastically asked.

"Well at a time like this, I should at least be able to spend time with my boyfriend. But he had already promised to help you research dead people, which is so not how I wanted to spend my weekend."

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry Cordelia. The next time I run in to a vampire, I'll ask them to start working around your schedule."

"Yes, well," Giles quickly broke in, wanting to stop the confrontation before it got out of hand, "perhaps we should get started, the others should be here soon."

"Fine," Buffy finally relented, it didn't seem like she had any other choice but to postpone this conversation for now.


	8. Crown Street 13

A short while later everybody was gathered around the table in the library and Buffy was filling them in on what she had found out. "I went back to the cemetery this morning, the grave belonged to a George Reynolds. Willow could you look him up on the computer?"

"Sure." A long and slightly uncomfortable silence followed, the only sound was Willow's fingers tapping against the keys. "Found him. It says here he died 8 months ago of a heart attack."

Buffy frowned. "That's weird. If he's been dead for eight months why would they wait so long before digging him up."

"Maybe they just found out he had the amulet?" Willow suggested.

"It's a possibility. However, it doesn't really help us," Giles pointed out. "We need to know exactly what amulet they were looking for if we are going to find out what they need it for."

"Well there is one obvious solution to this," Xander said. looking at them all in expectation. When all he received in return was confused stares he elaborated, "Well, the vampire was looking for it in his grave right?"

"You mean we should dig him up?" asked Willow

"Eww!" Cordelia abruptly exclaimed, giving her boyfriend a disgusted look.

"Well no, not exactly we just... dig up the grave, get the amulet and then we dig it back down," explained Xander, while shrugging his shoulders.

"You can't be serious," Jenny said, glaring.

"Why not? We've dug up graves before," Xander reasoned.

"I don't think the situation costs for such drastic actions just yet," Giles interrupted. "Our first priority should be to try and find the vampires who were looking for the amulet."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Buffy wondered, her brow furrowing in confusion. She was trying her best to focus on the subject at hand, but found it increasingly hard to do so. At first the thought of some new vampires to deal with had actually been uplifting, but when Giles had made that comment about them probably being involved with Angel her optimism had quickly died. How was she ever going to stop thinking about him when he was constantly intertwined in her Life.

"Well the quickest way would probably be if you could get a hold of a vampire and try to get some information, vampires digging up graves is bound to catch some attention," Giles said, while looking at her worriedly.

"Okay. Actually I think I might know someone who would probably know," Buffy answered, her attempts of not thinking of Angel at once gone from her mind at the thought of seeing him again.

"Oh, well good, then we can go out on patrol tonight and..."

Buffy quickly interrupted him, "That's okay Giles, no offence but it might go quicker if I go on my own." As soon as the words were out of her mouth she almost regretted them, she had already decided to tell Giles the truth and patrol would have been the perfect opportunity to speak with him in private. However, her desire to see Angel was enough to override her guilty conscience at the moment.

"Oh-h all right, but in that case I want you to come here tomorrow, you're training has been neglected for far too long."

"Fine," Buffy muttered, it was probably the best deal she was going to get.

"Good," Giles approved.

"Does that mean we get to go?" Xander abruptly asked, while leaping from his chair with a hopeful smile.

"What? Oh yes, yes go."

"Peachy. I'll let you know what I find out," said Buffy, also standing up.

"Please do a-and be careful," Giles added.

"Come on you guys, let's leave before he changes his mind," said Xander, hurrying towards the door with Cordelia closely following. Buffy waited for Willow to shut down the computer and join her before following them out.

"They seemed to be in a pretty good mood considering," Jenny commented. "Maybe things while actually get back too normal soon."

"One can always hope."

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Once again Buffy found herself in the Sunnydale cemetery looking for Angel. After leaving the library Xander had suggested that they should all go get some pizza, not feeling up to socializing Buffy had tried to decline but Willow had persuaded her to go along with them. And to her surprise she had a great time and it had almost seemed like nothing had really changed. The time had flown by and before she knew it was almost dark outside and Willow had reminded her she had to go out and look for vampires, shattering her newfound relief.

When Giles had first suggested she try and get information about this mystery amulet it had seemed like a great opportunity to talk to Angel, he could hardly blame her for contacting him about a possible threat. It wasn't until she had gone in search for him that she realized she had no way of getting in contact with him. It was too risky for her to seek him out at the warehouse, she had tried his old apartment but the place was completely deserted, clearly he hadn't returned there since the morning after they... no, she refused to let herself think about that.

Since she couldn't get in touch with Angel she decided to simply to as Giles suggested, find a vampire and try to get some information. But after walking through the graveyard for the second time and only coming in contact with a newly raised vampire, she was just about to give up for the night and go home before her mother would start getting worried when a rustling in the nearby bushes caught her attention. With her luck it wouldn't be surprising if it turned out to be a cat or something but it was worth checking out.

As she slowly made her way forward she could feel a presence behind her, before she was able to strike she heard a familiar voice whispering, "Buffy, it's me."

Losing her iron grip on her stake she slowly turned around, trying to calm her racing heart. "Angel. I was just lo..."

"We have to talk, it's important."

She was momentarily thrown off by his cold voice and distant body language. "Yeah, I-I actually need to talk to you too."

"Not here, someone could see us," he warned her, while anxiously looking around to see that they hadn’t been spotted. "There is an abandoned house at the end of Crown Street, number thirteen, meet me there in ten minutes." Before she had a chance to respond he turned and quickly walked away, disappearing into the darkness.

It took her a moment to process his abrupt departure, she started making her way towards the road trying desperately to shake the feeling of dread. He wanted to talk to her in private, that had to be a good sign. Maybe he had even realized how foolish his plan to spy at Spike and Drusilla really was. Her rational side however doubted it, if he had there wasn't any reason for him to be so distant.

After walking for a while, completely lost in her thoughts she realized she had reached her destination, the house was located at the end of a blind alley and the big threes and overgrown bushes made it mostly secluded from the other houses on the street. The house was rather small but had a large yard that Buffy imagined had been really beautiful at some point. There was a large wooden porch at the front of the house and an old rotten stairway leading up to it. As she walked up to the door she could see that red paint was flaking off and a big part of the porch sealing had fallen down. The front door was already partly open and it looked like it was in danger of falling off at any moment, she carefully opened it and stepped inside.

It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the dark, the windows were so thirty that the moonlight didn’t shine through. She saw a large room that probably was a living room once upon a time, except for a fireplace and some old curtains that looked like they used to be white the room was completely empty. She stepped further into the room and coughed as a result of all the dust laying thick across the floor.

"Buffy, over here," she heard Angel call out.

She saw him standing at a door frame across the room, he waves for her to follow him. As she reached the door she saw a flight of stairs leading down to what she assumed was the basement. As she made her way down the thought crossed her mind that this could be some sort of trap, but she determinedly pushed it away. The basement turned out to be in much better shape than the rest of the house, there was a light shining bright in the ceiling and it was much warmer. There was a large wooden table and an old couch that had clearly seen better days, but still seemed useable.

After looking around the room her eyes finally landed on Angel, they stood like that for a moment just looking at each other before Buffy tentatively asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered in a hard tone. "Spike and Drusilla... they don't suspect anything."

"Good."

He studied her for a moment, seeming uncertain all of a sudden before he blurted out, "Spike told me had found a way to... to get rid of you. He wouldn't tell me how, I'm going to try and get him to tell me exactly what he has planned. Until I find out more you should probably keep your eye out for anything out of the ordinary."

Buffy couldn't help but feel disappointed that he had sought her out to talk about Spike. "Well as it happens something out of the ordinary has already happened, that's why I was looking for you tonight. To see if you knew anything," she replied, hoping to hide her Disappointment.

"About what?" he asked warily.

"Uh, the other night when I was out... I came across three vampires digging up a grave."

"Grave robbers?" he exclaimed in surprise.

Instantly her disappointment was replaced with relief, if Angel hadn't heard about the amulet it was possible the vampires wasn't connected to him or Spike. "One of them said he was looking for an amulet, Giles is worried that there is something in the works. Do you think they could be working for Spike?"

"I'd say that's a good guess, if Spike has gotten an amulet it probably has something to do with a demon," he said, going over his conversation with Spike to see if it all fit. "What happened to them? The vampires?"

"I staked one but the other two got away. They didn't get the amulet though."

"Are you sure?" he asked, instantly on alert. "It sounded like Spike already had it. When was this?"

"The day that..." she stopped herself, for some reason feeling hesitant about mentioning him getting his soul back, instead she said, "two days ago."

"That's the day before I talked to Spike, he probably thought they wouldn't have any problem retrieving it. How can you be sure they don't have it now?"

"Because they didn't have it when I fought with them and the grave hasn't been disturbed since then," Buffy explained, feeling indignant that he seemed to doubt her.

"All right, you need to get a hold of this amulet before Spike those."

She bit her tongue before she could say something rash, she then took a deep breath before responding, "Think you can find out which amulet it is and what he wants it for?"

"I can try," he offered.

"Okay," she said, all of a sudden feeling like she couldn't stand another minute of being in his company with him being so cold and distant. She had started to make her way back up the stairs when she heard him call out her name softly. Despite her better judgment she felt her hope rise again as she slowly turned back towards him.

"If you find anything and need to get in touch with me you can leave a note down her on the table, I'll try to check in regularly. Just make sure that no one sees you go in here."

Immediately her hope is dashed and she berates herself for being so gullible while desperately trying to hold back her tears. She managed to nod in agreement and gave him a small smile before continuing up the stairs and hurrying out of the house.

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Giles came down the stairs and saw Jenny sitting at her computer, he smiled at the memory of his own surprise when Jenny had told him that there where computers you could take with you and use almost everywhere. He made his way towards the kitchen while at the same time asking Jenny, "Do you want eggs for breakfast?"

Totally absorbed in what she was reading she started at the sound of his voice. "I'm sorry, what?"

Giles held up the frying pan and repeated, "Do you want eggs?"

Shaking her head vigorously Jenny turned her focus back to the computer whilst saying, "Oh no we don't have time for that, we'll just have to pick something up on the way."

Giles came to an abrupt stop in his motion to take out the eggs from the refrigerator and looked at her in confusion, "The way? The way to where?"

"Were going to visit George Reynolds widow," she stated matter-of-factly, as she shut down the computer.

"We are? Why?"

She gave him an amused smile and explained, "To ask her about the amulet, chances are she still has it. I mean why would a guy be buried with an amulet?"

Giles had to admit that it made a lot of sense and he was a little embarrassed that he hadn't thought of it himself. "Have you talked to this woman?"

"No... that's why we are going to see her remember," Jenny reasoned, feeling her patience starting to run out.

"So are we just going show up at her doorstep," he wondered, doubtful that this woman would want to share information about her late husband’s personal effects with two complete strangers.

"Pretty much."

"Can't we have breakfast first?" he tried to persuade her.

"No, we don't know how long it will take and you're meeting Buffy in an hour." Shaking her head at him Jenny grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards the door. "Come on, we can buy some doughnuts after were done."

"Doughnuts are not breakfast," Giles objected, as he followed her out the door.


	9. Purpose Of Visit

"I'm still not sure if this is a good idea, what are we supposed to say to this woman?" Giles asked worriedly as Jenny pulled her car to a stop outside the house where George Reynolds widow lived.

She couldn’t help but smile at his anxiety and tried to assure him, "Rupert relax, I'm not planning on telling her that there are vampires digging up her husband's grave."

"That's a relief," he replied sarcastically. "But I'm still not sure..." he continued to object but Jenny was already out of the car. After a brief struggle to get out of the seatbelt he hurries after her. He caught up with her just as she reached the front door.

"You ready?" she asked dramatically before ringing the doorbell.

"I just think we should at least have come up with a proper reason for being here first."

Jenny smirked, "So we'll just have to improvise."

Before Giles had the chance to protest again the door opened and they are greeted by a tall, fashionable dressed woman in her early fifties. She gave them a thin wary smile, "Hello."

"Hi, are you Sue Reynolds?" Jenny asked with a warm smile.

The women looked at them uncertainly. "Yes that's me. Are you with the police?"

"The police?" Giles exclaimed in wonder.

The women seemed to retreat at Giles sudden outburst and Jenny was quick to interrupt before she could shut the door in their faces. "No we're not, I'm Jenny Calendar and this is Rupert Giles. We were wondering if we could talk to you for a second, it's about your late husband, George Reynolds."

"Oh!" the woman exclaimed in obvious surprise.

"We don't want to impose," Jenny was quick to add.

"Oh no, that's quite all right, please come in," she offered them, but her tone was all but welcoming. She held the door open for them to enter and then showed them into the living room. The house was impeccably clean and sparely furnished. She gestured for them to take a seat at the couch before inquiring, "Can I get you something to drink?"

They both shake their heads in response and Jenny answered, "No, thank you."

Mrs Reynolds sat down in front of them in a small beige armchair, she straightened her skirt and then clasped her hands tightly and gave them another forced smile as she asked, "Did you two know George?"

"No, no we didn't," Giles answered hesitantly, not sure how they were going to approach the subject.

Seeing his hesitation Jenny stepped in, "Mrs Reynolds this might seem like an odd question but did your husband own any sort of amulet?"

"Yes actually he did, why?" she asked politely, but her posture became even stiffer and her knuckles turned white at her tight grasp.

"We were wondering if we could have a look at it?"

Her attempt at seeming unfazed was instantly shattered as she suddenly rose from her seat and yelled, "Why? Who are you people?"

Jenny and Giles were both momentarily thrown by her hostile behaviour. Jenny rushed to try and come up with a plausible explanation. "I'm sorry Mrs Reynolds... Rupert and I are big antic collectors and we heard a rumour that Mr Reynolds owned an amulet that might have been a family heirloom from the ah..." trying quickly to come up with a good name she noticed a vase with tulips sitting on the coffee table and blurted out, "the Tulip family."

Giles gave her a look that seemed both amused and appalled, but luckily Mrs Reynolds didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the name or Giles reaction. Instead she gave a nervous laugh as she blushed and sat back down in obvious relief and rushed to explain, "Oh I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to-o get so offensive. You see, somebody broke into the house yesterday."

"Oh God I'm sorry, if we had known..." Jenny apologized.

"No that's quite all right. It's just gotten me a little paranoid that's all." The woman's posture was more relaxed but the smile she gave them still seems forced. "I take it this means the amulet would be worth a lot of money?"

"If it's authentic it could be," Jenny answered, trying to be as vague as possible.

"That's a shame. If I knew I wouldn't have sold it."

Giles instantly perked up at Jenny's side and joined in the conversation, "I'm sorry, you say you've sold the amulet?"

Mrs Reynolds looked at Giles in surprise for a moment, then she blushed and stammered, "Well, ah... yes, a-a few months ago. I-I held a garage sale with some of-f... George's things."

"Do you know who bought it?" Jenny asked

"I have no idea," Mrs Reynolds responded crisply, her posture once again stiffening.

"You wouldn't happen to know where your husband got the amulet from?" Giles inquired.

"It belonged to his grandfather, George never liked the amulet very much but it meant a lot to his grandfather and they were very close.

"Could you perhaps describe the amulet, that way we might be able to determine if it was authentic," he pressed on.

Mrs Reynolds gave a long sigh before reluctantly answering, "Well, I can't say I ever paid much attention to it, it was quite ugly to tell you the truth. It was round and shaped with swirl like patterns in silver and gold. Does that tell you anything?"

"I'm afraid we would need a more detailed description to determine its origin," Giles stated, trying not to let his disappointment show.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be of any more assistant to you," she announced, rising up from her seat making it clear that their visit was over.

"We appreciate you took the time to speak to us. If you ever to find out who bought the amulet we would appreciate if you could give us a call. We both work at Sunnydale High, you can reach us there."

Mrs Reynolds gave them another strained smile while lightly shaking her head. "Yes of course, but I really don't expect to see it ever again. It was nice meeting you both." 

They barely had time to say goodbye before the door closed.

They exchanged a bewildered look as they made their way back to Jenny's car. After getting in the driver seat Jenny stated, "Well, that was... weird."

"To say the least," Giles agreed, frowning. "If the amulet wasn't stolen then why did she get so upset when we asked about it?"

"I don't know. I also don't understand why she wants to know if it's worth something if she's not even interested in finding it. Not to mention that she almost threw us out of there. I guess this meeting wasn't much help huh? It actually seems to have made things even more confusing."

"Well, we may not have found the amulet but the more information we have about it the better. You know that was a really good idea Jenny, finding George's widow."

"You don't have to sound so surprised."

He gave her a huge grin as he teasingly said, "By the way, the Tulip family?"

Jenny couldn’t help but smile in response, "I panicked, it was all I could think of."

When Giles just continues to smile at her she shook her head in resignation, "We're going to be late."

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Buffy let out a long sigh where she was sitting at the table in the library, a huge book open in front of her. "Giles this is impossible, there are too many amulets to count and almost half of them have swirl like patterns."

"Yes, well, finding the right amulet will no doubt be quite a challenge but the good news is that silver and gold were very rarely used for amulets since it was so expensive and hard to get, so that should narrow our search down considerably. "

"Or it might narrow it down to nothing," Willow commented. "I've already gone through three books and I've only found one amulet made in gold, but that one had a picture of a lion in the middle."

"A yes that would be the amulet of Castrelli, it was used to worship an ancient sorcerer that would bring successful harvest in exchange for..." his ramblings came to an abrupt stop when he realized they were all staring at him impatiently. "Well, anyway it's clearly not what we are looking for."

"That's a shame, I think I would prefer it if Spike just wanted to grow crops," Buffy said in jest.

"You mean Spike and Angel," Xander was quick to add.

Buffy gave him a pleading look, but before she could respond Willow once again stepped in, "Xander, why don't you look in this book and see if you find anything."

Xander looked at the book he had been given titled Protection Against the Dark Arts and sighed, his anger momentarily forgotten as he mulled over being assigned to read through this momentous book.

Seeing that Xander’s attention had been diverted the rest of the people in the room relaxed, Willow for a slightly different reason than the others.

"Any luck, Jenny?" Giles asked the women sitting at the computer.

She shook her head in response. "No, the search engine came up with about 130 000 entries. It's going to take me a while to go over them all but so far I haven't found anything that matches her description."

"Well, our only comfort is that since the amulet is so hard to trace Spike and..." Giles hesitated for a brief moment, "and Angel probably hasn't found it either."

"Yeah well they still have an advantage, they know what amulet we are looking for," Buffy pointed out.

"And that is exactly why we need to research any possible amulets that match Mrs Reynolds description. So, if all of you get back to work I will go get the rest of the books."

"The rest of them!" Xander exclaimed as he looked at the twenty or so books already lying on the table. Both Buffy and Willow groaned in dejection, it was going to be a long day.

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Spike was sitting at a big round stone table reading a book titled The Lost Art of Ghouls. He froze in the middle of turning a page and turned to look at Angel who was standing a few feet behind him, watching intently. "Did you need something? Or are you just fascinated by my incredibly good looks?" Spike asked sarcastically.

Angel gave him a patronizing smile. "I'm just worried about you that's all. I mean if you think you are going to take out the slayer with the help of Ghouls I'd say you're in big trouble."

"Why Angelus, I didn't know you cared so much." He gives him a calculating look before continuing, "Don't worry, I have something entirely different in mind for our dear slayer. But after she is gone I think the Ghouls could be a great help in achieving my... sorry, our goal."

"That's not a bad idea Spike, of course this while only work if you manage to kill the slayer this time."

"You're one to talk. You had her right in the sack more than willing and still you let her get away, all because you wanted to play."

It took Angel all the control he had not to attack Spike right there and then, but he couldn't hide the malice in his voice, "Yeah, well play times over. So why don't you just fill me in on your little plan so we can get to work.

Spikes smile grew even nastier. "Really Angelus, why so impatient?"

"Because the reason we joined forces was so we could take out the slayer together."

"And we will, it will just take a little while for the plan to be set in motion and until then, you will just have to wait.

Angel took a step closer to him and leaned forward, "Fine. But if this secret plan of yours should fail, there will be dire consequences."

Spike face quickly turns from amused too furious. "Are you threatening me?"

"Just some friendly advice." As Angel turned and walks away he could feel Spikes gaze burning in to his back and he couldn’t help but worry that he had just made a fatal mistake.

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After spending the entire day in the library looking through books, and still not finding what they were looking for, and the largest part of the evening training with Giles, Buffy had finally managed to convince him that they should call it a night since it was a school day tomorrow.

But school was the furthest thing from her mind as she made her way towards Crown Street 13, the house seemed even more run down than she remembered. As she made her way to the basement she was slightly relived that she wouldn't have to face Angel to communicate with him. His cold and distant demure from yesterday still hurt 

She placed the note she has written on the table, putting a piece of wood she found on the floor over it so it won't blow away.

As she stepped out of the house her senses went on alert and she knew there was someone watching her. She looked around but the trees and the high vegetation made it impossible to discern anything in the dark. She slowly began making her way home, stopping several times to look back towards the house but still seeing nothing.

After a long while later when Buffy had almost reached her own house, Angel finally stepped out of his hiding place and made his way into the house to retrieve the note.


	10. Stuck On You

As Angel made his way back to the abandoned warehouse he was contemplating what his next move should be. If Buffy's information was correct and Spike didn’t yet have the amulet that would explain why Spike was so reluctant to tell him about it.

It was also all the more reason to find out just which amulet Spike was after so Buffy could get it first and hopefully but a stop to whatever Spike was planning. However, after his last encounter with Spike he was reluctant to bring up the subject again.

When he entered the warehouse Spike was nowhere in sight, it seemed like the perfect opportunity had presented itself. He made his way over to Drusilla who was humming to herself while staring unseeingly into space. "Oh Drusilla," he called out in a low voice.

"Angel!"

"Are you alone?"

Her smile faltered a little, "Spike went out, he had to meet with someone."

"Did he now?" Angel walked behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, "He should have waited for me, I could have gone in his place. It would have given him time to work on his grand plan. Are you excited?"

"Oh, it's going to be so wonderful," she exclaimed in obvious delight.

He leaned in closer and whispered in her ear, "Tell me... exactly how wonderful it will be."

"What the hell are you doing?!" Spike called out in fury as he quickly made his way over to them.

Angel couldn’t help but curse Spikes sudden appearance under his breath, but when he turned to address him there was nothing but a superior grin on his face, "Hey there, Spike."

"Get your hands of off her," Spike growled, his hand fiercely clutching the handle of the wheelchair.

"Now, now there is no reason to get testy. Dru and I were just having a friendly chat."

"Yeah, I know exactly how friendly you wanted to get."

Drusilla moaned and cooed, "Ohh, Spike don't be mad."

"Don't worry sweetheart." Spike reached out and took her hand in his. "Why don't you go find yourself something to eat."

He waited until she had left and the door had closed behind her before turning to Angel, his expression wild with fury, "If you so much as lay a hand on her I swear I will..."

"You will what? Face it Spike, you could barely take me when you had two working legs, you have no chance sitting in that thing. But hey, no need to worry. I wouldn't hurt Drusilla, you know how much I care for her."

"That's exactly what worries me," Spike stated as he began to calm down.

"Let's talk about more pleasant things, like this meeting you were at. Meet with anybody interesting?"

"It's peculiar how nosy you've become recently."

"I find it peculiar that you have gotten so secretive lately," Angel shoot back. He leaned forward and lowered his voice, "Or maybe you're just scared to tell me about it? Don't want me to see you fail again?"

"You just wait," Spike spit out before turning the wheel chair around and making his way out of the warehouse, leaving Angel alone once again to dwell on his inability to get some useful information.

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Jenny made sure to arrive at the school extra early in hopes of seeing Rupert before her first class started. He had wanted to continue researching the amulet and since she herself had papers that needed to be graded they had spent the night apart. In the back of her mind she scolded herself for acting like one of her lovesick students but it was completely smothered by her longing to see him.

At first sight the library appears empty, but the amount of books scattered over the table tells her Rupert was somewhere near. She knew he wouldn't dream of leaving the library in this state. A quick look in his office revealed even more books and a cup of steaming coffee on his desk confirming her suspicions that he hadn't been home at all, only a lack of sleep would bring her all-through English lover to drink coffee.

Just then the object of her thoughts walked out from between the bookshelves, carrying yet another book. He came to an abrupt stop when he noticed her, "Jenny, what are you doing here?"

"I work here," Jenny drolly replied and when Rupert still looked confused she added, "I'm a teacher, remember?"

One look at the clock sent him out of his bewilderment. "Oh, I hadn't realized the time," he said as he hurried down and started stacking the books on the table.

"You've been here all night," she stated rather than asked.

He gave her a sheepish look before admitting, "Eh yes, I thought it would be best to do a as thorough research as possible."

"Found anything?"

"I might have," he responded to her surprise.

"I found three different possibilities that might be the amulet we are looking for."

He reached for one of the books on the table and handed it to her, the open page showed a drawing of an amulet consisted of two snakes, one in gold and one in silver, intertwined together. "That belonged to an ancient emperor, it doesn't really match the description to well but I figured one can never be too sure. The other two doesn't have any pictures but based on their descriptions one of them could be the one we are looking for."

He gave her another book before heading to his office and retrieving the third book. "Both of them are described as round shaped with undefined patterns in silver and gold and they are both used for protection against dark forces."

"What would Angel and Spike want with one of these?"

He gave a tired sigh as he sat down, "I have no idea at the present, the next step will be to find out more about these three amulets and try to find out if they could have any use for one of them."

"Great, more research. I'll send an email to some of my online sources, maybe somebody will know something."

Suddenly she noticed him looking at her with a dazed expression, not appearing to be listening, "What?"

"Oh, nothing... you look very nice today."

She couldn’t resist teasing him a little, "As opposed to how awful I usually look?"

"No, no of course not. I-I just meant..."

Then because she knew it was the most effective way to silence him and because she couldn’t resist, she leaned forward and gave him a long deep kiss. Eventually she reluctantly pulled back, this was neither the time nor the place, "I'll see you later."

She was happy to note that his dazed expression had returned. "Yes of course... later."

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"That was absolutely horrible!" Buffy heard a familiar voice exclaim behind her and she turned to see Cordelia approaching with Xander in tow.

"It wasn't that bad," Xander tried to calm his agitated girlfriend.

Buffy really didn't want to get involved in whatever argument the two where currently having, but on the off chance that it could be something Hellmouth related she concluded that it was best to at least ask, "What happened?"

"I was forced to take the bus to school," Cordelia elaborated, still noticeably upset.

"How dreadful," Buffy dryly replied, giving Xander a ‘are you kidding me’ look.

He merely shrugged his shoulders, "Her car broke down yesterday on the middle of the highway, we had to stand at the edge waiting for the tow truck with cars going by faster than a speeding bullet. I'm telling you, that's worse than any vampire you can imagine."

Buffy couldn’t help but direct a gleeful look at Cordelia, "Sounds like you'll have to continue taking the bus to school for a while."

The other girl responded with a smug, "As if, I'll be getting a new, functional car in two days."

Buffy snorted, astonished and slightly envious, "Your car breaks down and you automatically get a new one? Why not just repair the car you already have?"

"I was getting the new car anyway as my 17 birthday present. My sister will get the old car to use for test driving."

"It's your birthday?" Xander blurted out in surprise, which got him an angry glare in return.

Just then Buffy caught sight of Willow making her way towards them. "Hey, you have no idea how happy I am to see you. But I have to warn you, you just walked into an episode of Days of Our Lives." Taking a closer look at her friend she suddenly noticed that she seemed upset and judging by the redness under her eyes she had been crying. "What's wrong?"

"I just... the funeral is this weekend, on Sunday. Oz parents weren't sure which students they should invite so, they asked me to tell you."

Buffy felt her stomach tightening painfully and all she was able to respond in return is, "Oh."

"Are you okay?" Xander asked, stepping forward as if to comfort her.

Willow took a step backwards and instead of answering him she asked, "Will you guys let Giles and Ms Calendar know?"

"Sure," Buffy quickly agreed, searching desperately for something to say.

"I have to get to class," said Willow before walking away as quickly as possible.

Buffy stares after debating what to do. "Do you think we should go after her?"

"I don't know. What would we say?" Xander's voice is cold, sending shivers down her spine even before he declared, "If you ask me actions his better than words. Don't you think it's high time we make Angel pay for what he's done."

The bell rang saving her from having this conversation, at least for the moment. She closed her locker and made sure to avoid looking at Xander as they made their way to their first class of the day.

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Willow tried desperately not to let any more tears escape. Over the past days she had almost began to feel sane again, school had even started to have a peaceful effect on her making it appear as if nothing had changed. She'd been entirely avoiding the hallway where Oz used to have his locker, which meant she had to take a detour to some of her classes but it had given a comforting illusion.

It was still hard to find the strength to get up in the mornings, but at Saturday she had slept the whole night through without any nightmares and she had finally begun to hope for some sort of normalcy.

Then on Sunday night the phone had rang, it had been Oz's father telling her that the funeral was set in one week. One week. That was all the time left before she would have to say goodbye, before he would be gone forever. Part of her knew that wasn't logical, he was already gone, but somehow she had managed to delude herself of that notion, making it feel as if it was only temporary. That he was away somewhere performing with his band and would be back soon. But he wasn't coming back and she wasn't sure she was ready to deal with that.

She came to an abrupt stop outside the door, the classroom blurred before her eyes as tears threatened to overwhelm her. A soft sob escaped her before she turned and ran in the opposite directions. She didn’t pay any attention to the looks she was receiving as she raced through the hallways. She was vaguely aware of the bell ringing just before she threw the door open, bursting down the stairs and on to the school grounds. Finally away from the crowd she stopped her flight, leaning against a tall tree trying to get herself under control. Then her gaze came to focus on a nearby bench, the same bench where Oz was sitting when he first asked her out on a date. The last of her resolve finally crumbled and her knees buckled, sending her crashing to the ground as her grief finally came pouring out.


	11. Love And Loss

Giles let out a dejected sigh as he stared across the cemetery where the fog was lying thick, oddly reflecting of the current mood. "Although there have been quite a few deaths I've never... attended a student’s funeral before," he slowly acknowledged, feeling the need to put his sorrow into words but having a hard time defining it. He had very barely known Oz, but at the same time the boy had been a part of their Group.

"Me neither. And it's not something I ever want to experience again," came Jenny's soft reply.

He could hear the underlying pain in her voice and reached out to lay his arm around her shoulders, offering her whatever small comfort he could. He then turned his attention to the students slowly walking towards them, he frowned in concern when he noticed that they were one short, "Where is Willow?"

"Oz's mom wanted to talk to her," Xander answered him.

His gaze then settled on Buffy who seemed to be doing her best to avoid looking directly at any of them. She'd been very drawn back and distant this past week, she had efficiently avoided any requests that she should join in the research of the possible amulets and only stopping by the library for short updates about her latest patrol.

He contributed this to her feeling guilty over the circumstances that had led to Oz's dead and knew he needed to speak with her about it, but he was uncertain about how to approach the subject. Even though he himself was no stranger to loss and guilt this was something out of the ordinary and out of his depth. But that was of no significance, it was his duty as a Watcher to help her deal with the difficulties that came with being the Slayer. He had already neglected his responsibilities by not approaching her about this sooner.

"Buffy, I was hoping you could accompany me to the library? I need to talk to you, in private."

She looked up at him, startled. "Oh, well I... I have to write an essay for English that's due on Monday."

"It won't take long," he assured her, resolute not to take no for an answer. He then gave Jenny a pleading look to try and convey their need for privacy.

She seemed to understand his request and addressed Xander and Cordelia, "I'll give you kids a ride home."

"Aren't we going to the library? We still have to continue with the research," Willows sudden arrival startled them all. Contrary to Buffy she had been an almost constant presence in the library for the past week and had devoted all her free time to researching the amulets, but she had persistently kept to herself and scarcely spoke to anyone.

"I think we can take a break from that today--" Giles began but was abruptly interrupted by a anxious Willow.

"But we still haven't found anything conclusive, and we really should keep at it." She looked at him beggingly for a moment and then uncertainly looked to the ground and hesitantly admitted, "Besides I... I really rather not go home yet."

"Yeah I agree," Xander said, nodding his head vigorously. "Besides I think there is things that we all should talk about."

Giles gave another dejected sigh, this time for an entirely different reason, and reluctantly acknowledged his defeat, "Well I suppose... if you all insist."

Jenny gave him a sympathetic smile as they all made their way to the parking lot.

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Giles noticed that Buffy made sure not to stand far from the door, as if she was preparing to dash out of it any minute. She had her arms folded in front of her and was still refusing to meet his gaze. "Okay, we're here. What did you want to talk about?"

Part of him reasoned that he should hold of this conversation until they were alone, but judging by Buffy's reluctant posture that might not happen for a while. His office would simply have to suffice for providing privacy. "It's a rather delicate matter..."

"Well like I said I have an essay to write so if you don't mind--"

"Buffy!" he sharply interrupted her attempt at trying to evade the conversation. Clearly asking wouldn't be enough here. "We'll talk in my office."

Buffy finally seemed to relent, but to his annoyance Xander instead voiced his objections, "There is really no need for that. We can all guess what you two are going to talk about and really, I think we all deserve to be part of this conversation."

"What are you talking about?" He was fairly sure that whatever Xander was imagining he and Buffy was going to talk about was something entirely different than what he had in mind.

A suspicion that was unfortunately confirmed when the boy answered in a scathing tone, "Angel. Killed Oz. We have to stop him."

"Xander, now is not the time," Giles unsuccessfully tried to divert him.

"Oh you can't be serious. Am I the only one understanding what has to be done!" He briefly stopped his rant and took a deep breath before continuing in a slightly more controlled tone, "Look I realized some people needed time to come to terms with everything that's happened, but enough is enough! We buried a friend today. A friend that Angel killed."

"We all know what's at stake here Xander. But we can't just--" Jenny attempted to calm him.

"You would know more than most of us," Buffy's quiet voice suddenly interrupted as she directed an accusing glare at Jenny, an occurrence that had been blissfully absent for the last weeks.

Before Giles could protest, the last of Xander's control seemed to snap. "Oh that's fine coming from you. You do realize if you had killed Angel when you had the chance Oz would still be alive!"

"Xander, stop it!" Willow shouted, her voice thick with emotion.

Xander seemed at a loss for words for a moment as he stared at her in complete shock. "Oh for Christ sake. You too Willow, out of all people. Oz was your boyfriend for crying out loud."

Her eyes where bright with tears threatening to fall and her voice sounded as if it's about to break any minute, but there was still something solid behind her words, "You don't think I know that? I know what I lost, and I do not want to lose my best friend as well."

For a moment the room is filled with an utter silence while Xander and Willow stare at each other in some sort of silent battle. Then suddenly, without a word, Buffy turned and ran from the room.

"Buffy!" Willow called after her in desperation.

Giles had no idea how everything had spiralled so out of control so suddenly, but he knew he needed to establish authority to try and rectify the situation. "Willow is right. No one is denying that Angel has to be stopped, but he is immensely powerful and giving Buffy's emotional connection... we need to be extra careful. It's going to take some careful planning to find a way to defeat him."

"But nobody is even trying. It's like you people don't even care."

Trying to put a stop to Xander's ranting he raised his voice, "That's enough!"

Xander however was not prepared to give up, "But it's--"

"I said enough!" Giles shouted, no longer able to contain his anger and frustration. "All of you go home," he shot Xander a pointed glare, "calm yourself down and come back when you can manage a civil conversation. If that is in fact within your capacity."

Xander gave a furious glare in return and then abruptly stalked out of the library slamming the door behind him, Cordelia silently followed and just barely managed not to be hit by the swinging door. Willow stayed put, casting contemplative glances at the door appearing to be debating if she should leave or not.

Giles made an effort to soften his voice as he addressed the distressed girl, "Willow you should go home as well, the research can wait until Monday."

"I'd really rather--"

"Just go!"

He instantly regretted his outburst as he took in her shattered expression. Before he could form an apology Jenny spoke up, "I have some assignments I need to grade while I'm here, Willow maybe you could give me a hand."

"Yeah, absolutely," the young girl eagerly agreed before hurrying out the door.

Jenny opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again, looking at him with something resembling resignation. After a moments pause she sighed and said, "I suggest you take your own advice, and calm down."

All he managed was a silent nod in reply, looking after her in anxiety as she too left.

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It was a few hours later when the doors opened again and Jenny walked back into the library. Giles was sitting at the table, absently starring into space while trying to get his thoughts in order. He felt a flutter in his chest as he saw her reluctance. He tried to form some short of greeting but words fail him, instead it was Jenny who spoke first, "I just dropped Willow of at her house. I'm all finished so..."

He stuttered while attempting to come up with a subtle way to express that he understood and respected her dissatisfaction with him, "I uh, assume you'll be going to your apartment?"

Instantly her expression turned to one of defiance and he could see the anger flashing in her eyes. "Is that supposed to be some sort of hint?"

Realizing that she thought he was trying to get rid of her he hastened to explain himself, "No, no, not at all. I only meant... I-I acknowledge that I may not be your idea of pleasant company at the moment."

Her expression softened and she gave him a sincere if somewhat sad smile as she took a seat opposite him, "Yeah well, I still prefer your company on a bad day than anybody else's on a good day."

He felt as if a burden had lifted at hearing her encouragement. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lose my temper."

"It's understandable. It has been a hard day for everyone."

He nodded his head in agreement and acknowledged, "I knew they were hurting but... I'm afraid I hadn't realized how bad it really is."

Jenny reached across the table to clasp his hand, "They're young, Rupert. Granted they been through more hardships and are more mature than most people their age but... they're still just kids."

Somehow the contact of her small hands in his made it easier for him to admit, "Yes... I tend to forget that sometimes don't I?"

"Perhaps. But then again you're support and encouragement is what has helped them become mature enough to deal with this life, I think that's just as important." Suddenly standing up she gave his hand a gentle tug, "Come on, let's get out of here."

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After spending the entire evening attempting to write her essay and not managing more than two sentences Buffy shut her textbook, giving up. It would no doubt result in another failed grade but at the moment she couldn't bring herself to care. All her mind was focused on at the moment was the things her friends had said earlier that day.

While Xander's accusation had upset her it had been something she had expected considering his earlier opinions on anything concerning Angel, it had been Willow's words that affected her the most. I know what I lost, and I do not want to lose my best friend as well.

After everything she had been through, even after just attending her boyfriend’s funeral, Willow was worried about her, worried about her being hurt. It was almost more than she could bare, knowing that while Willow was grieving over Oz and worried that Angel would hurt someone else, Buffy herself knew that Angel's soul had been saved.

When she had found out that there was a chance to save him it had been all she could think about, the only way it seemed like things could come to some sort of conclusion. And now she almost regretted her decision to do the ritual. It hadn't really helped anything since Angel was still with Spike and Drusilla and she was now at the verge of losing the two closest friends she had ever had.

A soft knock interrupted her dwelling and she looked toward the door to see her mother peeking in. "Willow's on the phone."

The fist that had been gripping her insides all afternoon seemed to tighten its hold, "Tell her I'm not here."

"Buffy what's wrong?" her mother asked in concern.

What was wrong? She had betrayed her best friend and was lying to her about it, the same best friend that was now worrying over her. "Nothing."

"It's not nothing if you won’t talk to your best friend."

"I'm just tired."

"Did you guys have a fight?"

"No," she tried to convince her, but could hear how weak it came out. She tried to put more force behind her words, "It's nothing."

But the disbelieving look she received told her that there was no getting out of it. Slowly she made her way out in the hallway and over to the phone, she took a deep breath in order to try and calm her racing heart before hesitantly picking it up, "Hello."

Immediately Willows anxious voice answered her, "Hey... how are you?"

"Good," she lied, proud of herself for managing to say it without stuttering.

"Listen, you shouldn't pay any attention to that nonsense Xander spewed, he just doesn't understand. He's not doing it to hurt you, he's just... I'll talk to him, first thing tomorrow."

"You don't have to do that," Buffy replied honestly, she could hardly be mad at Xander for not being a great friend right now when she wasn't being one herself.

"Yes I do. Because, we have to try and fix things. I know it's hard right now but... we are all still friends, right?" Willow asked, seeming to be genuinely worried.

For a moment Buffy forgot how to breathe. "Of course."

"Good, so, I'll talk to him. Okay?"

Seeing no other option than to agree she answered with a soft, "Okay."

"All right. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. And Willow..." a thousand thoughts swam in her mind as she tried to come up with something to say that would convey what she was feeling, something that would set the world right again. But in the end all she managed to produce was a heartfelt, "thanks."

"That's what friends are for. I gotta go. Bye."

"Bye."

"You girls worked everything out?"

Her mother’s sudden question startled her for a moment. Eventually she gave an affirmative nod, not able to find the strength to give a reassuring smile, even an insincere one. It seemed to be enough though as her mother beamed at her with obvious pride, "See how good things work out if you just listen to your mother? Good night sweetie."

She managed to respond with a quiet, "Good night," before fleeing to the refuge of her room.

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Jenny's attention was completely focused on her computer screen as she was reading through her latest e-mail from one of her online contacts, when a timid knock interrupted her. "Ms Calendar?" Willow's soft voice called out.

She gave the girl a small smile in greeting and gestured for her to come in, "Hey Willow, you finished with this week’s assignment already?"

The girl shook her head in response, "No-- I mean yes it's finished, but that's not why I'm here. Do you have a minute?"

Noticing the uncertain undertone in her question Jenny quickly shut down the computer and turned to give the girl her undivided attention. "Sure. What's up?"

"Not much, I just..." she hesitated for a moment and seemed to be searching for the words. Eventually she turned her gaze to Jenny and seemed to brace herself, "I got call from Oz's mom yesterday and she wan--"

Before Willow had the chance to finish the door sprang open and an anxious Giles burst in. "Jenny--" he stopped in his track when he realized that she was not alone, "Oh Willow, hello."

Judging by his sheepish expression Jenny concluded that he was still feeling guilty over his harsh behaviour yesterday. Willow didn't seem to be fairing much better, her resolve completely vanished as she replied with an uncertain, "Hi."

"Rupert, now isn't the best time."

He didn't appear to have heard her however, instead he rushed to asked, "Have you seen today's paper?" his temporary embarrassment forgotten.

She didn't even bother to try and suppress her growing irritation. "No I haven't, why?"

He held out the paper to her which she snatched with a little more force than necessary. When she read the front headline of the Sunnydale Press and saw the picture accompanying it her irritation at Rupert's interruption instantly disappeared to be replaced with dread, "Oh my God."


	12. Bad Laid Plans

"What is it?" an alarmed Willow asked.

It was Giles who answered her, "There's an article about Sue Reynolds, the woman whose husband owned the amulet. She's been killed."

"What happened?"

"It doesn't say, just that the police have no current suspects."

Jenny looked up from reading the article, trying to get her bearings in order, "What does this means? Do you think it could have something to do with the amulet?"

Giles shrugged his shoulders in resignation. They looked at each other in silence for a long moment, the implication weighing heavy on their minds. Finally Giles spoke, "We need look in to this, if Spike and Angelus is involved..." He left the sentence hanging and instead addressed Willow, "Tell Buffy and the others that we need to meet at the library directly after school, no excuses."

"Okay," the young girl replied.

Giles gave Jenny a small smile before heading out the door, Willow started to follow him.

"Willow..." Jenny called after her, "didn't you want to talk?"

"Oh," she seemed to battle with herself for a moment before answering, "it's not important... it can wait."

"Are you sure?" seeing the girls uncertain expression she went to close the door and inquired, "What did Mrs Osbourne want when she called you?"

"She wanted us to meet, have coffee and talk."

"What did you tell her?" Jenny asked, trying to figure out what it was that was making her so anxious.

Willow shrugged in resignation, "That I was busy... with school and stuff."

"You don't want to talk to her? Willow it's perfectly understandable for you to find it difficult to talk to her, or anyone about Oz," Jenny tried to console her.

But Willow shook her head decidedly, "It's not that. I mean, it is hard but... I'm more worried about exactly what she wants to talk about."

"She probably just wants to talk about Oz with someone who was close to him in the part of his life that she wasn't a part of."

"That's the thing, when I spoke with her at... at the funeral, she mentioned that she wanted me to testify if the... person responsible was caught and that I should stay in contact with the police." She gave Jenny a helpless look, "I haven't because... well, you know."

Jenny nodded in silence as it finally dawned on her what it was Willow was so concerned about. "And you think that's what she wants to talk to you about?"

"I got a call from the police a couple of days ago that the case was temporarily closed since they haven't been able to come up with any suspects. What am I supposed to tell her? She deserves to know what happened to her son, but I obviously can't tell her the truth," Willow exclaimed in desperation.

Jenny's heart ached for the poor girl, she shouldn't have to worry about this on top of everything else. But before Jenny had the chance to respond the bell rang startling them both and within seconds students had started to pour into the classroom.

"Willow..." she started but quickly realized there was nothing she could say to reassure her, she was reluctant to let the girl go while she was still upset but she didn't have much of a choice. "Why don't we talk more about this later, I'm sure we can figure something out."

Willow gave a short nod in response before hurrying out of the door and down the hall.

Jenny stood looking after her in worry for a moment, her thoughts filled with the possibilities of what this could entail. Someone coughing interrupted her pondering and she suddenly remembered she had a classroom full of students waiting for her, students who were currently looking at her with wondering expressions. Willows dilemma would have to wait until later.

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Willow slowly opened the door and peered into the classroom, grateful to find the teachers attention focused on the board. She entered as quietly as she could, taking a seat next to Buffy who had Cordelia seated at her other side, the place where Xander usually sat.

Confused she looked through the room and found him sitting at the other side of the room in the back, as far away from them as possible. Irritated with his childish behaviour she tried to catch his gaze but he was determinedly staring down at his desk, ignoring everything around him.

"Miss Rosenberg?" The teachers voice suddenly interrupted her gazing at Xander and she realized the rest of the class were all looking at her, obviously waiting for something.

"Uh? Oh, I was..." she stammered to try and come up with an explanation.

The teacher gave her a strict look and reprimanded, "I suggest you pay attention to the lecture."

"Yes Mrs Malcolm," she murmured in response while trying to sink as far down in her chair as possible. When the teacher continued with the lesson the other students attention was finally drawn away for her, she refrained from trying to catch Xander's attention for the rest of the class.

When the bell rang signalling the end of the lesson Xander hurried out of his chair and all but ran from the classroom, most of the other students right behind him.

Willow made sure to quickly gather her books together and informed Buffy and Cordelia that Giles wanted to see them all in the library after school. But before she had the chance to tell them what about Mrs Malcolm interrupted her, "Miss Rosenberg! Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Oh... sure," she agreed worriedly and hesitantly made her way over to the teachers desk.

Her teacher observed her in concern for a moment before she eventually asked, "Is everything all right? You've seemed to be very distracted lately, not paying attention in class is not like you.

"I'm okay," Willow answered quickly.

"Are you sure?" Mrs Malcolm questioned again, clearly not convinced.

Willow tried to make her voice sound more assertive when she assured, "Everything is fine..." and then asked in a slightly milder tone, "Can I go?"

Mrs Malcolm gave a deep sigh but nodded her head, "Yes, of course."

Finally making her way out in the corridor she looked around but couldn't see Xander anywhere, not that she had expected to. She did however notice Cordelia standing at her locker putting away her books and made her way over to the other girl.

"Cordelia, do you know where Xander is?"

"No, and I have no interest in knowing," Cordelia responded surly.

But Willow was to occupied with her thoughts on talking to Xander that she hardly even noticed Cordelia's apparent displeasure with her boyfriend. Instead she hurried through the corridor, anxious to get a hold of Xander before their next class began.

Suddenly she spotted him a few yards ahead, walking towards her. She rapidly began walking forwards to meet him but when he caught sight of her he halted before abruptly turning around and walking in the other direction. Not willing to lose track of him again Willow started running after him shouting, "Xander!"

Luckily for her Xander's way was blocked by several seniors who wasn't intending getting out of his way and that enabled her to catch up with him, "Xander..."

She could clearly see his shoulders slump in defeat and when he turned to face her he was sporting a big fake smile, "Willow. What can I do for you on this fine morning?"

"We need to talk."

His smile faded at her words but his voice was still overly cheerful, "Do we? I can't imagine what about."

She bit back an angry retort and took a deep breath to calm herself while trying to come up with a way to try and persuade him. "I know you've never liked Angel, I'm not so crazy about him either after... you know."

That seemed to calm him down a nudge so she decided to just lay it all out there, "But Buffy loved him. And now he's gone... except he's not really gone cause now he's Angelus and Buffy's going to have to be the one who kills him. And we have to be there for her and support her because that's what friends do. So snap out of it."

As her rambling came to a halt she worried that she had come on to hard and that he would close up again, but to her relief while he looked reluctant he didn't seem to be angry. Not wanting to press him any further she dropped the subject and instead informed him, "Something's happened, Giles wants us all to meet in the library after school and that includes you. Will you be there?"

He still looked reluctant but let out a resigned sigh, "Yeah, I’ll be there."

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Once again Giles, Jenny, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Cordelia where all gathered in the library.

"What exactly did she tell you guys? Was there anything that seemed weird?" Buffy asked after Giles had finished telling them about the article.

"Everything about our visit was weird. She started by asking us if we were from the police, then she got very upset when we asked her about the amulet. She told us that her house had been broken into the day before and that had made her skittish," Giles explained.

"Why did she think you asking about the amulet would have something to do with a robbery?" Willow asked.

"I wondered over the same thing. In hindsight we probably should have looked into this more closely, at the time it just seemed like a dead end."

"Well I found something that could be of interest." Jenny declared, turning the computer screen so they could see it. "This is the police report from the robbery. It says that one of Mrs Reynolds neighbours saw that the back door was open and called the police. They found the house ransacked but when Mrs Reynolds got home it was declared that nothing had been taken."

"Who breaks into a house and doesn't take anything?" Buffy wondered aloud, she was getting the suspicion that this wasn't Hellmouth related.

"A vampire..." Xander suggested.

But Jenny shook her head no, elaborating, "This took place in bright day light, I doubt a vampire would be able to pull that off."

"That's a bit of a risk too, breaking in, in the middle of the day, especially if the neighbours where around," Giles reasoned.

"So maybe this was an amateur, breaking in and then realizing the neighbour saw him and he got out of there," Cordelia suggested, appearing to be very pleased with her theory.

But Jenny shook her head again, "I don't think so, this says that every room in the house had been trashed and that wasn't a small house. And judging by the top notch TV and the jewellery she wore I would say there would have been more than enough time for the robber to get his hand on pretty hefty find."

"In other words or robber isn't actually a robber?" Xander concluded.

That caused Cordelia to let out a ridiculing snort, "Way to state the obvious you moron."

Buffy interrupted before Xander had a chance to retort and start another squabble, "Xander's right do, if whoever did this didn't break in to steal something there must have been a different reason."

"But if this person isn't a vampire that would make them human? I mean, if we think this person might have been the one that killed her shouldn't we contact the police?" an anxious Willow wondered.

"We have no idea who this person could be. They police are already investigating her death and they know about the break in, they are probably already looking into it," Jenny pointed out.

Giles quickly concurred, "Jenny's right, we shouldn't do anything hasty."

"If she wasn't killed by a vampire there's nothing we can do anyway," Buffy added.

"That's right," Xander loudly proclaimed, "besides we already have enough on our plate with Spike and Angel, let's not forget that!"

Buffy gave him a hard glare but it was Cordelia who angrily exclaimed, "That's it!" before abruptly getting up and walking away.

"Where are you going?" Xander called after her.

"Anywhere that isn't here, I can't stand another second of your whining."

"That's a first, I actually agree with Cordelia," Buffy muttered.

"What's going on with you guys?" Willow quickly intervened, desperate to keep her friends from getting into another argument.

"Oh, she's upset about her birthday."

Buffy snorted and gave Xander a mocking glance, "Don't tell me you forgot it?"

"No! I took her to the movies. It was the only thing I could afford but apparently that wasn't good enough for her royal highness."

"Well that's not really fair." Willow cried out in indignation. "It shouldn't matter what you do as long as you're together."

"Try telling her that," Xander drawled.

"I will tell her, next time I see her." That earned her several disbelieving looks. "No I will, honestly."

"If you say so."

Willow seemed to ponder it for a minute and then added, "Well maybe not directly when I see her, I have to pick my moment."

That extracted a laugh from Buffy, "Sure you do."

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Since he hadn’t been able to get any information from Spike or Drusilla about the amulet, Angel decided to try a different source. Getting information from another vampire was too risky, there was too big a chance that it would eventually come back to Spike.

Luckily he had since long been acquainted with some of the local fences and knew that was one of the best places to get information about goods being either soled or stolen.

"Hey Skippy!"

A long thin man wearing an oversized trench coat looked up in surprise. "Hey, Angel. Haven't seen you in a while man. Thought you might have skipped town."

"No, just been busy. Listen I need some information."

"Oh no worries man, you've come to the right place. But hey, while you here can I interest you in a new watch? I just got in these new Rolexes, they look just like the real thing too."

"Yeah, no thanks." Angel looked around to make sure nobody could overhear their conversation, "I'm actually looking for a necklace. Or it's more like an amulet really. Made in silver and gold. Have you heard about anyone selling or buying that kind of thing?"

"No, you know necklaces really isn't my thing. Nancy down on the corner there as a lot of fancy jewellery but I don't think she has any amulets, it's mostly diamonds and that kind of stuff."

Angel nodded in understanding, while mentally berating himself for encountering another dead end. "Yeah well, if you hear or see anything about it let me know okay."

"Oh, sure thing man. You can count on me," Skippy assured him.

"Thanks."

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From a safe distant away Spike was standing next to a building wall, his eyes following Angels every move. Since he needed to be enough far away so Angel wouldn't notice him he didn't have a chance to hear what was being said.

He watched as Angel left and waited long enough to be sure that Angel was far away. He then quickly made his way towards the unsuspecting fence who was standing with his back to him. Before Skippy had time to understand what was happening, Spike had grabbed him by the collar and swiftly pushed him into an alley between two buildings taking them away from any prying Eyes.

"What the hell are you doing?" Skippy shouted in anger as he shrugged out of Spike grasp. But Spike just gave him a wicked smile in response before grabbing him by the neck and heisting him up against the wall. "Ahh! Let go of me! Let go of me!"

"No point in fighting it."

Skippy's rage quickly turned to fear. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"The man that was just here, what did he want?"

"He just wanted to buy some goods that's all. I've got prime stuff, if that's what you want I'll get you some, free of charge."

Spike tightened the grip around his neck, "I have absolutely no interest in your merchandise, and I know that neither did the man who was here before me. Now, I'll ask one more time. what did he want?"

"He wondered if I had heard anything about an amulet," Skippy managed to choke out while trying to gasp for air.

Spike loosened his grasp slightly when it became clear that his victim was going to cooperate, "What amulet?"

"Just an amulet, in silver and gold."

"And what exactly did you tell him?"

"That I hadn't heard anything. Listen, I swear to God I didn't tell him anything!"

Spikes interest was instantly caught, "Anything? You mean you do know something?"

Skippy hesitated for a second but when he felt Spikes grip tighten once again he quickly confessed, "This guy came here a couple of days ago."

"What guy?"

"I couldn't see his face, he was wearing some sort of mask. It looked like something out of a horror flick or something."

"And what did he say?"

"He wanted to know if somebody here had sold an amulet. And he said that if it appeared we weren't allowed to sell it to anyone but him. He made some pretty nasty threats about what would happen if we did."

Spike finally let go of him and smiled as he said, "Now there, that wasn't so hard was it? I just wish you hadn't made such a struggle, you made me hungry.

The fence face became one of horror as Spike face changed and before Skippy could make so much as a sound, Spike had sunk his fangs into his neck.


	13. Suspicious Minds

He'd known it, he'd known it right from the start. Did that son of a bitch really think he could just screw him over? That he could just waltz in after decades of being a useless excuse of a vampire and take over his territory, take his place and take his Drusilla. When he got his hands on that filthy traitor there was going to be hell to pay.

Feeling the rage consuming him he let out a furious roar and took out his frustration on the nearest tree, with all his strength he slammed his body against the tree trunk and was rewarded with a loud cracking sound.

His need to unleash his anger temporarily satisfied he closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath. As much as he wanted to be attacking Angelus instead off a tree he knew he needed to keep a level head, confronting Angel would be playing right in to his hands. The smartest thing he could do now was to continue playing the charade and wait for the right moment. As long as Angel didn't perceive him as a threat he still had a chance of finding out exactly what he was planning and how to ruin it.

Still too enraged to go back to the warehouse and keep his emotions in check, he decided to put his anger to good use and do a little scheming off his own.

First off he needed to get his wheelchair that he'd stashed in the mist off a few bushes not far away and after that he was off to the place where one was most likely to find gullible and informative vampires this time of night.

They were easy enough to find, the four of them was standing in the middle of the cemetery making enough noise to keep any eventual prey far away. Complete and utter morons, but for this they would be perfect. Two of them he recognized but he'd never bothered to remember their name, the other two were probably new.

It didn't take them long to spot him, the tallest of the vampires moved to greet him while the others huddled behind, casting curious glances his way, "Spike."

He didn't bother to return the greeting, he didn’t have the time nor the desire to socialize, what he wanted was some useful information. "Haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been?"

"Around."

"Doing what exactly?" he demanded, letting his irritation show in his voice.

"I really don't see how that's any of your business."

Now that he had not been expecting, who the hell did this idiot think he was. "Not my business?! Do I need to remind you that you work for me?!"

"What work? Running away from the slayer? You're constantly being beaten by a teenage girl Spike, not much of a leader," the vampire sneered at him. "Besides, you're mental if you think I'm going to take orders from an invalid."

That was it, he was not going to take this crap from some lowlife amateur. In a fit of rage Spike launched from his wheelchair, taking the vampire completely by surprise. In one swift move he had him in an iron grasp.

Immediately the other vampires made a move to escape but Spike was quick to perceive their intention, "Hold it right there!"

All three came to a halt, none of them daring to disobey his direct order. Turning his attention back to the vampire in his grasp he spoke in a calm, low voice, "It seems to me as if you and your little friends have been allowed far to much freedom."

"I'm sorry Spike, I didn't mean to-"

"Don't interrupt me. Our little encounter is going to remain a secret for now, no one will hear of what transpired here tonight. Is that clear?"

"Got it, we won't say a word," the vampire promised.

"Good," Spike smiled at him in satisfaction letting go of his hold. then without any warning he grabbed a hold of him again, throwing the unsuspecting vampire directly at a sharp branch that pierced straight through his heart leaving nothing but ash.

With that idiot out of the way Spike turned towards the three remaining vampires who were now looking at him in trepidation. "Now that you've seen exactly how I deal with those who are stupid enough to question me… I trust our future collaboration is going to be a smooth ride."

"Y-Yes boss, whatever you say," one of the vampires stammered out.

"Excellent. Now, let's talk business."

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Jenny hurriedly made her way through the corridor as the bell rang signalling that her first class of the day was about to start. Rupert’s scrap-heap of a car hadn't started this morning and since her car was still at her apartment it had been a small miracle that she made it to school somewhat in time. She had almost reached the safety of her classroom when she heard the principal's shrill voice shout out, "Ms Calendar!"

She came to a halt and took a deep breath before facing him, "Principal Snyder. Is there a problem?"

"The problem is that you're supposed to start teaching your class at 8:30 and it is now 8:32. I do not accept tardiness among my staff Ms Calendar."

"I'm sorry, I was..."

"I care little for your feeble excuses." He gave her a critical glance over and raised his head superiorly, "I happened to notice the library wasn't opened yet either. That seems to be happening quite a lot lately. I'm assuming that our missing librarian was with you?"

"How so?"

"It hasn't escaped my notice that you two are spending a lot of time together. Why is that exactly?"

"There is hardly anything odd about spending time with a co-worker. Now I better get going, don't want to keep my students waiting."

With that Jenny turned around and headed for her classroom leaving Snyder snarling after her, "That wouldn't be a problem if you were here on time."

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Later that afternoon Jenny walked into the library to find Willow seated at the study table with a huge book in front of her, nothing out of the ordinary about that but the fact that the library appeared otherwise empty was an unusual occurrence.

"Where is everybody?"

Before Willow had the chance to respond Giles emerged from the stack off bookshelves answering her question, "I gave Buffy the night off, she's going to do patrol later and Xander was going to find Cordelia-"

"Avoid Cordelia," Willow corrected him.

"-and Willow offered to stay and help me research," he went on as if Willow hadn't spoken.

"I see. And what exactly are you researching?"

At that question Willow bowed her head and mumbled, "All sort of different things…"

"In other words," Giles declared, "I have no idea what to look for or where to find it. Everything is just all over the place right now, with this mystery amulet and Sue Reynolds murder…"

Jenny gave him a sympathetic smile, "I'm afraid this won't shed a lot of light on the situation but I did a little more digging about George Reynolds, or more accurately his grandfather who he supposedly got the amulet from."

"What did you find?" Giles asked, his interest sparked.

"Donald Reynolds, born 1926 in Chicago, married an Elisabeth Garner in 1949, they had three children together and," she paused for a second to make sure she had their full attention, "he died 1988 in Los Angeles County Jail."

"He was in prison?"

"Turns out Georges grandfather had quite a colourful past, he was arrested several times for pick pocketing and home invasion before he finally was arrested for armed robbery and passed away two years later.

Giles looked at her with something resembling amazement, "You found out all this today?"

She couldn't help but smirk as she teased, "Amazing the information you can find on the internet huh?"

"So what does this mean?" Willow asked.

Giles let out a sigh in frustration, "Well, the bad news is since Georges grandfather was a thief he could have gotten hold of the amulet from pretty much anywhere," he trailed of for a few seconds his expression turning contemplating, "or anyone. I do wonder…"

"What?" Jenny asked, but Rupert appeared to be too deep in thought to hear her, "Rupert, don't leave us hanging."

That shook him out of his musings, "Oh, sorry. Buffy mentioned that the vampire looking for the amulet said it was his amulet."

Jenny considered that for a moment trying to follow his line of thought, "So you think he used to own it?"

"It's definitely possible."

That got Willow excited, "You mean maybe Donald Reynolds stole it from this vampire, when he wasn't a vampire, and now this vampire is digging up his grandson’s grave to get it back."

"S-Something like that, yes."

"But that's good right? That would mean that maybe Spike and Angel aren't after this amulet and maybe it's not something dangerous. Right?" the girl wondered hopefully.

Giles took of his glasses and started cleaning them while thinking over this new theory, "Even so… we have no way to know for sure. And if they indeed are not after this amulet then we have no insight whatsoever to what they might be planning which… probably would be even worse."

Willow let out a quiet "Oh," in Disappointment.

"Another dead end huh," Jenny apologized.

Giles gave her an encouraging smile, "I'm afraid so. I really don't know how to proceed without knowing what amulet it is we're dealing with."

Not being one to admit defeat Jenny decided it was time to take a more hands on approach, "In that case we need to determined who bought the amulet."

"But how? It was sold at a garage sale, anyone could have bought it," Giles objected

"Well people don't usually come from out of town to attend a garage sale so most likely it is still somewhere in Sunnydale."

Giles rolled his eyes at her reasoning, "Oh, well that would narrow down the search to a couple of thousands."

"But since the amulet was made in pure silver and gold it would be considered quite valuable, and when you factor in Sue Reynolds apparent expensive taste I'd guess she would have sold it for quite a hefty sum. So we can pretty much rule out everyone who can't afford to spend a small fortune on jewellery."

"Yes…" Giles hesitantly agreed, seeming to start getting on board with her reasoning and inserted, "and an amulet would be something unusual and might appeal to a-a collector of some sort."

"Most probably a women since-"

"You guys…" Willows slightly uncertain voice interrupted them.

"Yes, Willow?"

"I was just thinking… If she sold the amulet in a garage sale isn't it possible it was bought by one of her neighbours? I mean that's who usually attends a garage sale. Plus, she lived in a pretty upscale area so most of them would probably be able to afford it."

The girls logical suggestion brought Jenny up short. Damn, she should have thought of that herself. Judging by Ruperts current expression he was thinking something along the same line.

"Y-Yes, that would be a good place to… to start," Giles agreed.

Shaking of her embarrassment, anxious to get to do something useful Jenny declared, "Alright then, I guess we go knock on some doors."

"Right now?" Giles questioned in surprise.

"You have a better plan?"

"No, no I just-"

"Then I say we get to it," she interrupted before he had a chance to come up with any objections.

"Can I come?" Willow asked, her voice pleading.

Giles appeared momentarily thrown by her enquire, "I-I don't know if that would be-"

"Please," the girl begged, "I mean, it was kind of my idea…"

He regarded her in uncertainty for a few seconds before relenting, "Oh, fine."

Jenny couldn't help but smile at the girls subtle manipulation but decided it was best not to comment.

Just then the doors swung open and Cordelia walked in, her heels pounding loudly against the floor. "Is Xander here?"

"No, he's not," Jenny answered, and sarcastically added, "and hello to you too."

Cordelia looked at them in puzzlement for a moment before proclaiming, "Oh, good… cause I so don't want to talk to him."

"Yes, well, we were on our way out…" Giles declared, not in the mood to deal with any teenage angst at the moment.

"Where are we going?"

Giles opened his mouth to object to her assumption but stopped himself, reckoning it wouldn't make a difference. Instead he turned his attention to Jenny, "Shall we?"

"I'll fill you in on the way," Willow assured the other girl as they made their way out of the library.

Cordelia shrugged her shoulders in indifference, "Okay. It's not going to be anything involving blood or intestines though is it? Because this outfit is new."

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"Where should we start?" Giles asked, directing the question towards Jenny. The four of them was standing on the sidewalk outside of Sue Reynolds house.

"We should split up, much faster that way," Jenny reasoned. "Willow, Cordelia why don’t you start talking to people on this side and Rupert and I can visit the houses across the street."

"Okay," Willow eagerly agreed, while Cordelia shrugged her shoulders.

Jenny and Giles made their way across the street, heading for one of the houses at the end of the street.

"Do you think Willow can handle Cordelia on her own?" Giles wondered.

"She’ll manage," Jenny assured him, then added with a wry grin, "better than you for sure."

He blushed slightly at her teasing, "Yes, well… I’m afraid that my experience dealing with cheerleader routines and the latest fashion is fairly limited."

"I’m shocked."

"Are we sticking with our former cover story? Antic collectors?"

"Probably best, in case Sue Reynolds mentioned us to anyone."

"Somehow I doubt it, she didn’t appear to… thrilled, with our visit."

Arriving at the first house Jenny rang the doorbell, almost immediately the door opened. They were greeted by a severe looking man who looked them up and down with a sneer on his face and drawled out a, "Yes?"

"Hello, I’m Jenny Calendar-"

"What do you want?" the man barked at her, causing Jenny to involuntarily take a step backwards.

Simultaneously Giles took a step forward and said in a low ominous voice, "Watch your tone."

"Rupert," Jenny gently reprimanded him before addressing the man again, "We were just wondering if you attended a garage sale held by your neigh-"

"I do not attend garage sales," the man harshly interrupted her while glancing apprehensively at Giles.

Refusing to be discouraged by the mans rude behaviour Jenny pressed on, "Perhaps someone else in your family-"

"My family would not participate in something as degrading as a garage sale. Good day," the man spat out before shutting the door.

"I don’t suppose this will change your mind about our current investigation technique?".

"No."

Giles let out a resigned sigh, "Didn’t think so."

At the next house a young woman opened the door but before they had a chance to so much as introduce themselves she slammed to door shut in their faces causing them both to jerk backwards slightly.

"Nice neighbourhood," Jenny dryly commented.

"I knew this was a bad idea," Giles complained, taking his glasses of and polishing them vigorously.

Jenny sighed impatiently, "You’re the one who said we need to find out exactly which amulet it is we are looking for. How else to you suggest we do that?"

"W-Well it… would be easier to have a look inside their house, without their knowledge."

Jenny came to an abrupt halt and looked at him in bewilderment, "Are you seriously telling me you’d rather break in to these people homes instead of just talking to them?"

"Heavens no…" he insisted, then smiling slightly he added, "Buffy would be the one who breaks in."

Jenny unsuccessfully tried to hide her grin as she told him, "Because of that, you get to take the next house."

"Fair enough," he concluded as they made their way on to the porch of one of the smaller houses of the neighbourhood, located directly opposite the Reynolds house.

This time it was an elderly woman who opened the door. "Hello," she greeted, looking at them with friendly curiosity over her half-moon glasses.

"H-Hello. I’m Rupert Giles, this is my… my colleague, Ms Calendar."

"Hi," Jenny inserted.

"We are searching for a pendant that your neighbour, well, former neighbour Sue Reynolds used to own and we whe-"

"Oh, did you know Sue?" the woman interrupted in surprised delight.

"We meet her, somewhat briefly…"

"It was so tragic what happened, that poor woman. Oh, but do come in," the woman insisted, waving her hand to indicate that they should step inside.

Giles gave Jenny a satisfied smile and declared, "It appears you were right Jenny, this was a much easier way of going about this matter."

Jenny simply rolled her eyes at him and stepped into the house.

They followed her through a narrow hallway into a small kitchen, the house appeared neat and tidy but with a lot of ornaments and old photographs lining the walls.

The woman sat down at a small table in the centre of the room and gestured for them to have a seat on the opposite side.

"Would you like some coffee? Or perhaps some tea?" she offered.

"No, no thank you," Giles was quick to assure her. "We won’t take up much of your time Mrs…" he trailed of realizing they had yet to learn the woman’s name.

"Oh, forgive me. Where are my manners, I’ve completely forgotten to introduce myself. I’m Rose Bernard, it’s a pleasure to meet both of you."

"Likewise, Mrs. Bernard."

"Oh please, call me Rose."

"Rose, then. As I mentioned we are looking for an amulet that Mrs. Reynolds sold at her garage sale, did you by any chance attend?"

Mrs. Bernard looked at him in obvious surprise, "Heavens no, I haven’t heard about any such thing. When was this supposed to have taken place?"

"Well, we’re not entirely sure," Giles admitted, giving Jenny an uncertain glance.

"It would have been sometime during the last eight months, after her husband died," Jenny stated.

"I don’t know what to tell you, I’ve never heard of a garage sale taking place here, and if there had been one I can almost guarantee I would have heard of it. A lot of people in these parts frown upon such things and gossip tends to spread fast around here. Whatever you want to hear it or not." Mrs. Bernard paused for a moment, "Who exactly told you of this garage sale?"

"As a matter of fact Mrs. Reynolds told us about it herself," Giles replied.

"Really? How odd."

"Yes, yes it is," he agreed.

"I suppose it could have been a private sale she held, to try and avoid gossip. I had heard she was in a bit of tight spot, financially, after George passed away."

"Really? How so?" Giles inquired, his interest instantly sparked.

"Well, according to Mrs. Almond, she lives two houses down, such a sweet girl. She helps me with my grocery shopping every week and she always-"

"Yes, but about Mrs. Reynolds financial status…" Giles interrupted, eager to hear what she knew.

"Oh yes, anyhow, she had heard from her cousin Mary who runs a beauty salon on Pine Avenue, that Sue had been seen several times going in to the pawnshop across the street. And people said a lot of her things had started disappearing. Why she used to have this beautiful garden statue on the lawn, she always bragged about how George had won a huge bidding war at some auction, and then a few months ago the statue wasn’t there and I tell you-"

Just then the phone rang, startling all three of them.

"Oh, excuse me, I’ll be back in just a minute," Mrs. Bernard assured them as she went to answer.

A long silence followed as they listened to Mrs. Bernard chatting excitedly with whoever was on the other side of the phone. It was Giles who finally spoke, "Well this has certainly been…" he paused as he searched for a suitable word, "informative."

"I’m just glad someone was willing to talk to us," Jenny said. "So what do you think? That she actually sold the amulet at this pawnshop and was… to embarrassed to tell us?"

"It’s possible I guess… I’d say worth checking out."


	14. In Blindsight

"I’m sorry I couldn’t be of any help," a tall young man apologized for the second time while beaming at Cordelia.

"That’s okay, thanks for your time," Willow replied, but he hardly seemed to hear her as he was busy looking after Cordelia would had already turned and was making her way towards the sidewalk. Willow hurried to catch up with her.

"This is hopeless," Cordelia complained, "We’ve already been to five houses and not a single one knows anything about this stupid garage sale."

"We should keep trying," Willow insisted. Trying to cheer the other girl up she added, "Maybe we should look for Giles and Ms Calendar? See if they have had any luck."

"Whatever." Cordelia mumbled.

They started making their way back towards Sue Reynolds house, after a few minutes of silence Willow worked up the nerve to tentatively ask, "So... what's up with you and Xander?"

"Nothing," Cordelia answered shortly. Another brief silence followed before she exclaimed, "It's just that he can be such an idiot sometimes."

"Look, I know Xander probably isn't the smoothest of guys, but he means well. Not everyone has rich parents, I think maybe you should cut him some slack."

Cordelia snorted, "Right. What would you know about relationships."

Instantly Willow felt her chest constrict and she desperately tried to hold back her tears.

One look at Willows stricken face and Cordelia realized her blunder and instantly regretted it, "Oh god I'm sorry... I didn't mean..."

"It's okay." Willow tried to assure her, doing her best to manage a smile, "Really."

Cordelia let out a deep sigh and another long silence followed. They both stopped when they reached the house but with Giles and Ms. Calendar not being anywhere in sight they had no option but to wait as the tense silence seemed to stretch indefinitely. Cordelia was becoming desperate to say something to try and smooth over her hurtful comment and ended up blurting out, "It's not like I'm asking for a diamond ring or anything. At first I even thought going to the movies sounded kind of romantic, I just don't want to go see L.A. Confidential on my birthday."

"He took you to see L.A. Confidential?"

"Yeah," Cordelia affirmed, her voice revealing her irritation.

"Oh..." Willow contemplated that for a moment, "Well, maybe you should wait a little while longer before you forgive him."

"Yeah, I was thinking one more week."

Just then Willow spotted Giles and Ms Calendar exiting the house opposite the street. "Oh, there they are," she alerted the other girl and started waving her hand to catch their attention.

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Jenny and Giles walked out of Rose Bernard’s house, both thanking her for her help. But the woman seemed reluctant to let them leave. "Are you sure you wouldn’t like to stay for dinner? I’ll be making pot roast," she tried to persuade them.

"Uh, no-o thank you, we’ve already eaten," Giles lied quite poorly.

"Well you make sure to stop by the next time you’re in the neighbourhood," Mrs. Bernard insisted for the third time.

"Oh, y-yes, definitely…"

"We’d better hurry, I see our friends waiting for us," Jenny intervened, gesturing towards Cordelia and Willow who was waving enthusiastically at them. "Thanks again for all your help."

The old lady beamed happily, "You’re welcome dear."

She opened her mouth as if to say something more but before she had the chance Jenny quickly got hold of Giles arm and more or less dragged him down the stairs while giving Mrs. Bernard a wave goodbye.

They quickly made their way across the street where Willow and Cordelia where waiting. "Any luck?" Jenny asked the girls in greeting.

"Afraid not, most people didn’t seem too happy to talk to us at all. Except this one guy, but he was busy drooling over Cordelia. How did you guys do?"

"We might have come across a potential lead-" Giles began but he was interrupted by Jenny’s excited voice.

"Yeah, we’d better hurry before they close."

"Before who close?" Willow wondered.

Giles just let out a resigned sigh, "The pawnshop."

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"Unbelievable!" Jenny exclaimed in frustration, shaking the bars blocking the doors to what used to be the pawnshop.

"I walk here almost every day, I don’t remember this being closed down before. It must have happened recently," Willow pondered out loud, frowning slightly.

"Probably went bankrupt," Giles commented.

"Great, the shop is gone. Does this mean we get to go home now?" Cordelia whined.

Giles rolled his eyes at the young girls complaining. "You’re under no obligation to stay I assure you."

"My car is still at school."

"You could walk, it’s only five blocks away," Willow put in.

The other girl looked at her as if she’d just grown another head. "Walk? In my new Chanel shoes?" She took her left shoe of and showed them the sole, "Look at this, the heel is already scuffed."

"Jenny?" Giles inquired softly.

She looked at him for a moment, then she let out a deep sigh, "Let’s just go home."

"Finally," Cordelia exclaimed.

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Giles drove into the high school parking lot and parked his Citroën next to Jenny’s car. They had already dropped Willow of at her house and Cordelia was out of the car the moment it came to a stop with a hasty, "Bye."

Giles turned to the woman next to him and studied her profile for a moment. She was staring out of the window not seeming to have realized they had come to a stop. After the silence stretched on he finally asked, "Are we taking separate cars or…?"

She didn’t seem to have heard his question however. "Jenny?"

"I’m sorry, Rupert."

He frowned in concern, "Whatever for?"

"This wild goose chase I dragged you on. I really thought I had something, instead it turned out to be just another dead end."

Wanting to reassure her he said, "It was a good idea Jenny, talking to the neighbours."

She chuckled slightly before reminding him, "Actually that was Willows idea."

"Ah, right, well... We can blame her then."

Jenny laughed, a sound he would never tire of hearing. He reached out to gently caress her cheek, his expression turning serious. "We’ll think of something."

She tilted her head to the side, "You say that like you have a new idea?"

He smiled at her, "Perhaps. But that can wait until tomorrow." He leaned in to press his mouth to hers in a kiss that was both tender and passionate. "Your car?" he asked again.

Jenny’s face broke out in a mischievous grin, "It can wait until tomorrow."

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"Angel, nice of you to join us. Been out… hunting again?" Spike questioned the moment he walked in.

"A vampire has got to eat," was his only response.

He moved to walk away but Spike was quick to block his way. "Seeing as your appetite is satisfied, how about you do something useful for a change?"

"What have you got in mind?"

Spike laughed, his eyes taking on a dangerous glint. "What do you think? The slayer of course."

Angel smirked at him, "You’ve been gunning for the slayer for almost a year, without any success I might had. What makes you think you’ll be any help strapped to that thing?"

He had expected Spike to rise to the bait, but the vampire merely shrugged his shoulders, "I’ve called in a few favours."

"Why don’t you just let me take care of the slayer," Angel insisted.

"Quite frankly I’ve grown tired of your little cat and mouse game. You want to play? Find another pawn. The slayer dies… tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Spike, these things need planning. Not your style to rush in to things unprepared."

Spike laughed again, the sound echoing through the building. "Oh I’m not unprepared. It just occurred to me that I’ve been giving the slayer far too much leverage. Where doing this the old fashion way, bargain in unannounced and taking what we want."

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She felt herself being pulled awake by an urgent voice, "Buffy. Buffy, wake up."

The voice sounded comfortably familiar, but instinctively she knew there was a reason why the person the voice belonged to shouldn't be here. Forcing herself to open her eyes her vision a little blurry, she tried to focus on the figure standing next to her bed.

"Angel?" For a moment she thought she was still asleep, but his anxious expression quickly brought her wide awake. "Angel, what are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you."

His obvious attempts to look anywhere but directly at her made her realize that she was only wearing a long nightshirt. She resisted the urge to get back under the covers, this was no time to get prudish. "I’ve been checking that house every night, you never answered my message."

"Because I didn’t have any new information, until now." He finally looked her in the eyes. "Spike is planning something, something big. It’s going to go down tomorrow night."

"What’s he planning?"

"I don’t know," he admitted.

"That’s not a lot of help."

"It’s all I have for now. I’ll try to get in contact with you when I find out more."

"And if you can't?" she questioned, not really expecting an answer. "Seems to me that you’re spying isn’t doing much good is it?"

He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "Buffy, don't."

"Why not?" she pressed, as she felt her panic rising at the thought of the danger he was putting himself in.

"I have to go," he whispered, slowly moving towards the window.

"Right," she said softly, that all too familiar feeling of her heart in her throat and tears burning behind her eyes that she refused to let fall. She couldn’t fall apart now. "And what am I supposed to do with this information?"

"Just, keep your guard up."

"I always do," she answered, somehow managing to keep her voice firm. He looked at her for a long moment his eyes showing all of the emotions he was trying to keep buried, making it impossible for her to look away. Then without another word he turned and disappeared out into the darkness.

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After a long sleepless night Buffy had come to a conclusion, she was sick and tired of Spike and his tricks and she was done with Angel playing spy. It was time she took matter in to her own hands.

"Giles?!" she shouted as she rushed into the library, hours before school would even start. As she was meet with nothing but silence it occurred to her that maybe her watcher wasn’t here yet, unlikely as that sounded.

Right on cue the doors opened behind her opened and Giles walked in. "Oh Buffy, good. Listen, yesterday-"

"Whatever it is it’s going to have to wait, we need to prepare for tonight."

He looked at her in question, "Tonight?"

Taking a deep breath, she plunged right in, "Spike is making his move, I don’t know what he’s planning but from previous experience we can assume it’s going to be something big."

He laid the book on the table and took of his glasses, frowning slightly. "How, exactly do you know of this?"

"I…" she hesitated for a moment, she knew she needed to tell Giles the truth about Angel but now was hardly the right time, "have a source."

"A source?"

"Yeah you know… a source, in the underworld," she explained lamely.

"What kind of source?"

She sighed in frustration, "Shouldn’t you be glad I found out of this ahead of time? You’re the one who’s constantly saying how important it is to be prepared."

He looked taken aback for a moment. "Y-Yes, of course but… don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that you suddenly find out that Spike and Angel is going to attack from some shady source, heavens kno-"

"My source is not shady!" she exclaimed, a little too loudly. "Look, I… I can’t explain right now but please believe me when I tell you I know this is legit."

"Buffy-"

"Giles, please!" she pleaded. "Just, trust me on this."

Seeing no other option he finally relented, "All right. We should… alert the others."

"You do that, I’ll go get the weapons."

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"So basically Spike is planning something, we don’t know what, we don’t know when and we don’t know where?" Jenny summarized.

"That pretty much covers it."

She held her hands up in bewilderment, "Then how do we know something is going to happen tonight?"

"Buffy has… a source," Giles explained, trying to not let his scepticism show.

"A source? Who?" Willow wondered.

"That’s not important right now," Giles tried to deflect from the subject, not wanting to make them more worried about how little they actually knew about this current threat.

"But how do we know that we aren’t getting false information?" Willow insisted.

"Maybe because we don’t have any information," Jenny suggested.

"So what now?" Xander asked, voicing the thought that where on everyone’s mind. "Are we just going to sit here and wait for the sun to set so that Spike and Angel can come bargain in?"

For the first time since they had all gathered to hear what was going on, Buffy spoke up, "No. We’re going to go to them."


	15. Best Laid Plans

A long silence followed, no one really sure how to respond. It was Giles who first got his bearings, "Buffy, we can’t just go barging in. We don’t have any idea how many they are or-"

But once again she interrupted him, "We are not barging in, I am."

Immediately his defences went up. "Buffy-"

"We still have five hours until the sun sets, until then they have nowhere to go. I go in and keep them occupied while you guys make sure that no one is able to get out."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Willow questioned.

Buffy bit her bottom lip in hesitation, casting glances at Giles and Ms Calendar. "I was hoping one you may know of a spell that could come in handy for this?"

But Giles was having none of it, this was a suicide mission and he very much doubted that Buffy was ready to go up against Angel. "No, Buffy this is way too dangerous-"

"We can’t just sit here and wait for them to attack," Buffy raised her voice in frustration.

"T-This plan i-is ludicrous and as your Watcher I forbid it."

Standing her ground, Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and calmly stated, "Well, I’m the Slayer, which means I call the shots. You’re either with me or you’re not. It’s up to you."

Giles didn’t answer, instead he and his slayer engaged in a long stare until Xander intervened, "Of course we’re with you Buff. If you ask me it’s about high time someone takes action around here."

But Buffy didn’t take her eyes of her watcher, her stance firm, "Giles?"

He knew that tone in her voice all too well and it very rarely led to anything good. "Is there anything I can say to talk you out of this?"

"Afraid not." She relaxed her stance slightly and gave him a small smile and then turned to address Jenny, "Think you could come up with a spell?"

The technopagan gave her a slow nod in response, "Shouldn’t be too difficult."

"I’ll help you research," Willow quickly offered.

Having no option but to relent Giles reluctantly announced, "I’ll… get the weaponry."

Buffy turned towards the others, "Everyone make sure you have both crucifix and holy water."

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A little over an hour later Giles was in his office contemplating over their current situation, when there was a light knock on the open door. He looked up to find Jenny regarding him with a thoughtful expression, "You wouldn’t happen to have any smoky quartz crystals lying about would you?"

"You found a spell?"

She held up a book in answer as she entered the room, " _Contineo Malus_ , a spell to enclose evil. I need the crystals to create a barrier, I have a few at home but I don’t think they’ll be enough to cover that much ground."

He took the book she was holding and quickly scanned the page, "This spell seems rather straight forward, yes?"

She inclined her head in agreement, "Nothing to complicated. Shouldn’t be a problem even for a rookie like myself."

He hesitated for a second, not quite meeting her gaze. "Well, in that case… I, thought I might perform the spell."

Jenny raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Oookay…"

"I just think it would be wiser... That way you can stay here in case we need someone to-"

"Rupert," she interrupted, the warning clear in her voice.

Giles took of his glasses and pinched his nose, "Jenny, I-, I don’t want you in harms way. In truth I don’t want any of you involved in this insane plan at all but Buffy seems quiet determined on this course of action."

Jenny smiled faintly but didn’t waver, "Buffy’s a smart girl, a little impulsive but she has good instincts… and she’s had a great teacher."

"Normally I wouldn’t doubt Buffy’s capacity but when it comes to Angel I’m afraid she’s too emotional and reckless."

Jenny shrugged, "So maybe this is the way it needs to be. Quick and efficient, so she doesn’t have to think about it too much."

"Perhaps," he reluctantly agreed. He observed her for a minute, her confident stance and the unguarded affection in her eyes. The thought of anything happening to her was almost too much too bear. "I don’t want to see you hurt, Jenny."

"I know," she sympathized, taking his face in her hands and gently pressing her lips to his. "But I’m still going with you."

He let out a deep sigh, "Would you at least consider staying in the car? A quick getaway is crucial to any good-" the glare she sent his way efficiently shut him up and instead he offered, "I’ll get the crystals."

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Angels confident stride haltered slightly as he entered the warehouse and found Spike to be the only one there, it was only for a split second but he was sure Spike noticed it. "Where is everyone?"

"Everyone?" Spike questioned, feigning ignorance.

"I assumed you called in the cavalry," Angel goaded, but all he got in response was a satisfied smirk so he pressed on, "Are you planning on letting me in on your little plan?"

"Oh my cavalry have already done their job. I have everything I need right here," Spike declares and gestured towards the back of the room.

It’s the first time Angel notices it, and for a moment it almost feels as if it has just materialized out of thin air. He stares at it deadpanned for a moment before looking back at Spike, "A cage?"

"Ah, it’s not just any cage mate. Take a look."

He slowly walked closer, an uneasy feeling growing in his gut. The cage was tall but narrow, the bars so dark they almost seemed to disappear in the shadows and the entrance almost appeared to be gaping, prepared to swallow him whole. Every instinct he had told him that this cage was brimming with dark magic, but in order to try and get Spike to tell him exactly what it was for he pretended to be unimpressed. "You really think a lousy birdcage is going to be enough to hold the slayer."

"No…" he heard the wheels of Spikes wheelchair turning behind him. "But it’s just the right size for an angel." 

He felt a presence behind him but before he could turn around two strong hands grabbed him and quickly threw him into the cage, the door swiftly closing with a loud bang behind him.

He spun back around and was faced with a grinning Spike, standing upright holding up a brass key. "Surprise," Spike exclaims, while doing a little dance move.

In a fit of anger Angel hurled himself at the cage door, only to find himself immediately thrown back by an invisible force.

Spike tsks and shook his head, "Like I said, not just a regular cage."

Angel stared him down while trying to recover his bearings. "What the hell do you think you’re doing?"

Spikes grin quickly faded as his face morphed in anger. "What am I doing? People in glass cages shouldn’t throw stones mate." He walked closer to the bars of the cage and lowered his voice to a whisper, "You really think I would notice all your sneaking around? That I wouldn’t figure out you were going behind my back?"

Angels expression didn’t falter as Spike closely inspected him, looking for a reaction. He didn’t want to risk giving Spike more information than he already had. Calmly he responded, "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Oh, please," Spike spat at him, his anger rapidly returning, "I’m talking about mysterious disappearances and meetings with humans about bloody amulets. I welcomed you into my home, even after you spent years fighting against us and cosying up to that slayer. And you repay me by trying to take my crew, my town, my Drusilla! I don’t think so mate."

Angel almost couldn’t hide his relief, if it wasn’t for his current situation he probably would have found Spikes cluelessness entertaining. But as the other vampire currently had him at a disadvantage, he needed to try and reason with him. "Spike. You really have come to all the wrong conclusions here buddy."

Spikes sneer turned to a wicked smile, but his response was cut short as the sound of glass shattering drew their attention.

"What the hell was that?" Spike roared.

"You’re asking me?"

A rock comes flying through a window above them causing sunlight to stream in, causing both vampires to stagger back in pain. Angel pressed his back against the bars, barely managing to keep his body away from the burning sun.

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Buffy heard the first crash of glass at the other end of the warehouse and quickly made her way inside through one of the side doors. Not seeing anyone in close vicinity she swiftly jumped over a couple of crates and came to a halt behind a large barrel. She could hear voices shouting nearby and she saw two vampires come running, she crouched down and glanced at her clock. Just a few more seconds. There was another crash of glass shattering to her right, drawing the vampires attention.

Using their distraction to her advantage she ran forward, grabbing the stake from the waistband of her pants. She managed to stake one of them before they even noticed her, the other vampire snarled at her before making a launch but Buffy easily evaded his attack and staked him in the back.

A quick scan of her surroundings told her she was in the clear for now. She began making her way through the building, prepared for an unpredictable attack. She had been expecting an army, instead the place appeared almost completely empty.

Suddenly her instincts went on high alert causing her to come to an abrupt halt. Something was off, she could feel it in every bone in her body. She contemplated her next course of action when she heard a familiar voice shout her name.

"Angel!"

"What are you doing here?" he asked, as she rushed over to him. He was still pressed against the back of the cage, barely out of reach of the sun’s rays.

"What happened?"

"Spike. Turns out it wasn’t you he was after this time," he wryly admitted. She made a move to kick open the cage door. "Don’t! It’s made with black magic, trying to destroy it will only hurt you."

"We have to get you out of the sun."

"Spike has the key, but h-"

"Yes, he does," a third voice interrupted. Buffy slowly turned to face Spike, tightening her grip on her stake. "Well, well, isn’t this a nice surprise. It seems dear old Angelus is a better liar than I ever gave him credit for."

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Jenny placed the last crystal on the ground and then got in position. She heard the sound of the first rock being thrown and waited for the second one which was her signal to start casting the spell.

At the sound of someone approaching she turned to find a worried Giles walking towards her. "Jenny, I want you to hold the spell for as long as you can. After that I need you to promise me that you make sure that you and the kids get to safety."

She knitted her brows in confusion, "Whoa, whoa, where are you going?"

"I’m going to help Buffy."

"That wasn’t part of the plan."

"Buffy is to emotionally invested in this, I-I can’t risk Angelus getting the better off her," his eyes pleaded with her to understand.

She tried to swallow past the sudden lump in her throat, "But Rupert-"

"Promise me!" he insisted, taking a firm hold of her shoulders.

"I promise."

Just then the second crash could be heard, Giles gave her one last longing look before heading inside the building. Jenny tried to shake the feeling of dread building up inside her and pulled herself together enough to perform the spell.

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Buffy threw a punch, causing Spike to stagger back. She kicked but he blocked her and swung a fist at her which she dodged. But then Spike quickly spun around and elbowed her in the face, causing her to fall heavily to the floor. She quickly scrambled back to her feet as he advanced on her once again.

In her haste to get away from his range she failed to notice Drusilla coming up behind her, until she suddenly felt a cold hand take a tight grip around her neck, her arms locked behind her back in a fierce hold. "Pretty slayer…" the vampire whispered in her ear. "Too bad to think that soon you’ll be noting but rotting bones in the ground."

Spike grinned as he stepped closer, "I think we’ll keep the bones dear. It will make for a nice trophy."

Buffy desperately tried to struggle against Drusillas hold, but it was useless. She managed to catch Angels helpless gaze, and for a fleeting moment she felt relieved that his face would be the last thing she sees. Suddenly the hands holding her goes slack for a second before she was enveloped in a cloud of dust and she heard Spike let out a primal "Noooo!"

She threw a glance over her shoulder and saw Giles lowering a crossbow, in the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Spike as he launched at her, managing to duck out of the way in the last second.

Before Spike had the chance to get his bearings back Buffy did a roundhouse kick to his side, making him collapse to the ground. Acting quickly she grabbed the key and threw it to Angel and then she straddled Spikes back, pinning him to the ground. But just as she raised her stake to deliver the final blow she was diverted as she saw her Watcher raising his crossbow again, aiming it at Angel. "Giles, no!"

Giles concentration wavered for a split second, giving Angel the chance to unlock the cage door and escape out of his range.

Spike used Buffys momentary distraction to throw her of him. She barely managed to get up on her feet as he hurled himself at her again, but two strong hands grabbed her and shoved her out of the way. She heard Giles voice shouting, "Get out, now!"

A moment later Buffy and her watcher was bursting through the doors and out into the bright Sunlight.


	16. Big Little Lies

"Are you guys okay?" came Willows worried voice. 

Buffy could only nod in affirmation, her heart pounding wildly with adrenalin.

"What happened?" asked Jenny as she, Xander and Cordelia joined them. "Is Spike and Angel..."

"I don't know, they... " Buffy hesitated, casting a glance back at the warehouse. She could only hope that Angel would be able to get away and escape Spikes wrath. "I don't know."

"Drusilla is dead. So, whatever they were planning I'd say we're out of the woods for the time being," Giles informed the group.

"So, what now?" Xander wondered.

"Now, Ms. Calendar is going to take you home. Buffy, you’re accompanying me back to library," Giles told them. 

Jenny tried to object, "Rupert, shouldn’t-"

"Just do as I say!" Giles bellowed. Jenny only raised an eyebrow in response, clearly not deterred by his harsh demand. "Please," he added, in a distinctly gentler voice.

"Fine," Jenny relented, although she was clearly dissatisfied with his conduct. "Come on kids." 

Buffy waited until her friends were out of earshot before addressing her watcher, "Giles, I-"

"We’ll talk at the library," he sharply interrupted her, his tone brooking no argument.

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Inside the warehouse the fire was spreading rapidly. Angel could barely make out Spike on the other side of the room. He knew this was the perfect opportunity to end this once and for all, but the flames were too high and spreading too fast for him to cross them. He could only hope that the fire would prevent Spike from getting out and finish him off once and for all.

Angel quickly made his way to the back of the warehouse, grabbed an old blanket and wrapped it tightly around his head and chest. It would provide mediocre protection at best, but it would have to do as he had no time to waste.

He threw one last look back towards where Spike had been, but the flames were too high and the smoke too thick for him to be able to see anything. He hurried out the back door, running as fast as he could. The sun was burning him ten times worse than the fire had been and he could feel his skin starting to sear. He needed to find some sort of shelter and quick, or he would be end up being reduced to nothing but a pile of ash.

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The drive back to the school had been spent in silence, Giles trying to calm down and get his jumbled thoughts in order. He knew this was going to be a difficult conversation and it was important that Buffy didn’t feel like he was upset with her. But at the same time he needed to convey the seriousness of what had transpired at the warehouse.

As they entered the library he gestured for Buffy to take a seat by the table. "Why don't we sit down." He took a deep breath, debating with himself how to begin. "Buffy, I understand this must be very difficult for you… I know how much Angel meant to you."

"Giles-," she tried to interrupt, but he just went on talking.

"Truth be told this is mostly my fault, I haven’t been supporting you the way I should. You’ve always seemed to be able to handle everything that’s thrown at you and perhaps I’ve come to expect too much of you."

"Giles, I-"

"I knew this course of action today was a mistake and that you weren’t ready to take on Angel, but I ignored my instincts and in doing so I put you and everyone else in danger and I-"

"I lied!"

He stopped his rambling, thrown off by her statement. "I'm sorry?"

"I lied… about Angel. The ritual worked, Angel has his soul back." 

Giles could only stare at her in shock, his blood running cold as realization of what she was saying began to sink in. "W-Wha- H-How? Good Lord." He stood up abruptly, causing the chair he was sitting on to crash to the floor. "How could you not tell me about this?"

"I’m sorry. I was going to tell you, but then Xander showed up and I just... couldn’t. Then the longer I waited, the more difficult it was to tell you the truth."

He began anxiously pacing back and forth, going over everything that had happened in the past few weeks trying to wrap his head around what it all meant. "I take it he was your mysterious source then?"

"Yeah."

"Well, given the circumstance I would insist that everyone needs to be informed as soon as possible."

Buffy nodded her head in agreement, while steadily avoiding looking directly at him. "I’ll tell Willow. But until I do I don’t want the others to know. You can’t tell anyone... not even Ms Calendar."

That statement put an abrupt end to his pacing. "Buffy..."

She determinedly met his gaze head on, "Look, I know guys are together and that’s fine but this is between you and me, Slayer to Watcher. I’ll tell Willow as soon as I can and after that you can inform her and the others just… wait until I’ve talked to Willow."

The last thing he wanted to do was keep something like this from Jenny, but as a Watcher he knew he had to respect his slayers wishes. "Fine."

"Thank you."

"As long as we are talking Slayer to Watcher, I have to say that your behaviour has been appalling. For you not to inform me that Angel has is soul back is... this could have had dire consequences."

"I know," she acknowledged.

"I don’t think you do. Even if we overlook the worry you caused not only me… you put the people who care about you in danger. You’ve acted recklessly and quite frankly I-I’m disappointed in you."

"I’m sorry. I know I should have told you," she apologized, her voice heavy with regret.

Sitting there with her head bowed in defeat she suddenly looked very much like the 17-year-old girl she was. Giles felt all the anger leave him in an instance. He straightened up the chair that he had knocked to the ground and sat back down. "I know it’s been an extremely difficult time these past months and it’s easy to want to… hide away from it all. But at times such as these it’s more important than ever to lean on the people who care about you. You don’t have to go through this alone."

"Thanks Giles. I’m just not sure everyone is going to be so understanding."

"You mean Willow? Or Xander?"

"Both."

"It won’t be easy, but I think they both deserve to know the truth." Seeing how exhausted she looked and feeling the effect of today’s events himself, he decided that it was time to call it a day. "It’s been a long day, I’ll give you a ride home," he offered.

"Actually, I’d rather walk. I need to clear my head…" she hesitated for a moment before admitting, "and try to contact Angel. I need to know that he’s okay."

He nodded his head in understanding. "Be careful… the vampire community is bound to be in an uproar right now."

Buffy seemed to contemplate this for a moment, her brow furrowed in worry. "You know Spike’s going to want revenge."

"I know." He had already resigned himself to the fact that Spike would be coming after him, but he would deal with that when the time came. For now he had kept his slayer safe, that was what mattered the most.

"Thank you. For saving my life." 

"You’re welcome."

She gave him a sad smile in response. Giles stood up and gestured for Buffy to do the same, then pulled her into a tight hug. He wished he could have protected her from all of this, but he also knew this was something she had to deal with on her own.

"Just be careful."

"I will."

He watched her leave with a heavy heart. Although he knew Willow and the others needed to be informed of this, he couldn’t help but worry that this could adversely affect Buffy’s relationship with her friends.

There was also the dilemma of what to tell Jenny, he knew she would have questions. He didn’t want to lie to her and the last thing he wanted was for this to come between them. He just needed to wait a day or two for Buffy to tell Willow, then he would inform Jenny as soon as he could. He could only hope that she wouldn’t hold it against him.

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Buffy opted not to go back to the warehouse. She knew Angel would have tried to get away from there and if he hadn’t succeeded… she refused to even consider that possibility.

She started without a destination in mind, but it wasn’t long before she found herself standing outside of Crown Street 13. It was the most logical place for him to go, no one else knew about it and he would need to find shelter until the sun went down. 

The house seemed eerily silent and the fact that this was the first time she had been inside when there was still daylight only added to the feeling of desolation. She quickly made her way down to the basement, but before she had stepped fully inside she was hurled backwards and a heavy weight was crushing her against the wall. 

Before she had fully processed what was happening the weight pinning her down was gone and she was face to face with Angel. He was breathing heavily and his eyes seemed wild, but otherwise he appeared to be unharmed.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I was looking for you." She took a step closer but when he began backing away from her she stopped, trying to assess his condition. "Are you okay?"

"I’m fine."

His answer was far from convincing, but she opted not to push him. He looked like he was ready to bolt at any moment. "What about Spike?"

"I’m not sure."

Their gazes locked and the feeling of longing was overwhelming, but neither of them made any move to close the distance between them. It was Buffy who finally broke the silence, "What happens now?"

"I don’t know," he admitted. 

The hopeless expression on his face made her heart break. She slowly took a step closer and tried to gauge his reaction. When it seemed like he wasn’t going to back away she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him. He didn’t move as she laid her head against his chest, didn’t show any inclination to a response. She held him tightly and buried her nose in his neck, taking comfort in his familiar scent. After what seemed like an eternity she felt his arms come up and settle around her.

After weeks of worrying for his safety and feeling isolated from her friends this moment felt like a light at the end of the tunnel, she just hoped that the shambles that were left of their relationship would be enough to salvage it. 

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The next day Jenny arrived at school an hour early in hopes of finding Rupert. To say that she was worried would be an understatement. She had tried to get a hold of him all night yesterday, calling him multiple times and had seriously considered going by his apartment to see him.

The library was empty, but the books strewn across the table and the half-empty cup of tea told her that he had been there recently. She tried again at lunch only to find that the library was locked and Rupert still nowhere to be found. She’s not sure how she made it through the rest of her lessons but she was pretty sure her student didn’t learn a damn thing. When the final bell rang for the day she didn’t waste any time and was the first out of the classroom.

At first glance the library appeared empty and she could feel the panic starting to creep up on her. When Rupert stepped out of his office she felt such an relief that she almost threw herself in his arms. But the relief at seeing him unharmed was quickly replaced by anger at his vanishing act. "Where have you been?

He had the decency to look chagrined, but merely shrugged his shoulders and answered, "I’ve been here, mostly. Had a few errands to run."

His flippant demeanour caught her of guard and she could feel the panic starting to creep back in. "Is everything okay? Is Buffy-"

"Yes, yes… everything is fine," he assured her, but the smile on his face did little to calm her.

"I called you like half a dozen times last night, you never answered."

"I had some things I needed to take care of. I got home pretty late, didn’t want to wake you."

"Okaaay...." she drawled, the incredulousness in her voice impossible to miss. She decided not to mention that she had called the library several times as well. "Are you going to tell me exactly what happened yesterday?"

"Not much to tell really." He busied himself with shuffling some papers, clearly avoiding looking at her. "I still have some work I need to catch up on, non Hellmouth related. It will probably take a while but… I’ll see you tomorrow?"

Jenny tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. They had certainly spent nights apart before, there was nothing weird about that. But there was something about the distant tone he used and the way he wouldn’t look her directly in the eye that put her on edge. But she was mad enough at his behaviour that she didn’t bother calling him out on it.

She replied with a curt, "Sure, fine, whatever," and without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and strode off. She needed some time to cool off and hopefully by tomorrow he would be more himself and willing to talk about whatever was going on. After all, he was a Watcher, there could be a million reasons for him to be acting strange that had nothing to do with them.


End file.
